You can now buy a flame-throwing robot dog for under $10,000

hedge@beehaw.org to Technology@beehaw.org – 99 points –
You can now buy a flame-throwing robot dog for under $10,000
arstechnica.com
15

The company lists possible applications of the new robot as "wildfire control and prevention," "agricultural management," "ecological conservation," "snow and ice removal," and "entertainment and SFX."

Or another use I just thought of:

Accelerating the updating of laws in 48 states.

Flamethrowers have been legal and very easily and publicly available for a looooooong time. This thing is not going to change that.

The headline makes it seem like everyone’s been holding off until it was under 5 figures to get.

“Why can’t we get one?”

Just wait, the price is falling, Timmy

Definitely wait for the second or third version, you don’t want to pay the early adopter tax.

Oh man have I been there. Never buy gen 1.

Eh, it depends on how much you trust/value the company or product. I got a first gen Steam Deck and, while I didn't expect an updated model so quickly, I have no regrets. Even if it didn't live up to my expectations (it has), I would've wanted to support a customer friendly device like this.

If it's purely transactional, though, I agree - waiting for an updated or revamped version will be a much better value overall.

Hard agree on Steam Deck, gen 1 is still fantastic. Had a great 9 months with it before I got the OLED 2 weeks ago. Still a great device even with the OLED model out.

I just saw this and immediately felt struck with terror about how this will be used. Cops will fill it with tear gas and I suspect it will be used at ita full force against Palestinians.

Modern legged robots are great. But they're no match for crafty humans yet. It will get blown up from all sides. I'm pretty sure that the IDF has much more sinister and lethal weapons.

One weapon I'm particularly worried about is a swarm of mini drones equipped with AI to detect their targets and kill them with shaped charges. The only humans who deserve to be killed by it are the ones who were evil enough to invent it in the first place.

If this is to be used by the IDF against Palestinians, they won't put in tear gas...

🤖 I'm a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles: ::: spoiler Click here to see the summary If you've been wondering when you'll be able to order the flame-throwing robot that Ohio-based Throwflame first announced last summer, that day has finally arrived.

It features a one-hour battery, a 30-foot flame-throwing range, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity for remote control through a smartphone.

It also includes a LIDAR sensor for mapping and obstacle avoidance, laser sighting, and first-person view (FPV) navigation through an onboard camera.

The company lists possible applications of the new robot as "wildfire control and prevention," "agricultural management," "ecological conservation," "snow and ice removal," and "entertainment and SFX."

Back in 2018, Elon Musk made the news for offering an official Boring Company flamethrower that reportedly sold 10,000 units in 48 hours.

Even so, to state the obvious, flamethrowers can easily burn both things and people, starting fires and wreaking havoc if not used safely.


Saved 51% of original text. :::