Ditch helicopters for drones?

[motive]

So on our long drive to Parker for this last weeks race, my fellow pit crew member and I had a good talk about helicopters versus drones for filming races. As it stands right now, BITD does not allow drones to be used on the course. There is obvious safety reasons with helicopters occupying the same air space. Besides that, is there any reason not use technology to bring more video to the masses quicker and cheaper than the traditional helicopters? There are even drones that can be set up to follow a beacon of some kind on a race car or programmed to follow the course via GPS. As this technology becomes cheaper and more readily available, I could see many race teams have their own private drone to film with. I don't think any UTV team is going to hire a private helicopter so would their be interest to ask BITD if helicopters be grounded during a UTV only race in favor of allowing drones? How many of the photographers at the events would welcome something like this? How cool would it be to have live streaming video feeds from several team owned drones following their car around?!!

I do not own a drone, nor am I very familiar with the laws that might effect something like this. With that being said I am sure there are many of you that might be able to chime in on this.

 

[Glamisfan]

That would be hella cool to see good footage like that!

 

[JoeyD23]

Drones like I believe you referring too cant produce television level quality. Video quality sure but we are a long long ways away from that idea ever being reality.

 

[motive]

Drones like I believe you referring too cant produce television level quality. Video quality sure but we are a long long ways away from that idea ever being reality.

The only "television level quality" we get anyway is the Mint 400. And most of that is the trophy trucks anyway.

I guess the UTVWC was also on TV but since I don't care to buy cable TV I had to watch it at BWW and I have no idea what any of the commentary was.

 

[bdk]

Having multiple drones following multiple drivers wouldn't work out well. The racers pass to close and the object avoidance is nowhere near good enough to keep them from crashing into each other. I could also see accidents being cause by racers trying to avoid the crashed drones. The other issue is flight time, at least on the helicopter drones which I assume are the best for filming . I am a Land Surveyor and we're looking into drones for use in Aerial Mapping the the battery life is the major drawback. Even on the $60000+ custom built drones you're only getting about 20 minutes of flight time. Adding batteries also adds weight and decreases efficiency so as of right now there is no getting around that issue. The other problem is the batteries they use on those gives you 100% power until it's depleted so the batteries can die with no warning and when they do the drone just drops. It might be possible with the fixed wing drones but those have a whole different set of issues that would not make them ideal for filming. The technology will get there eventually but I just don't think it's possible yet

 

[Heybeerman]

I for one will not be "avoiding" crashing drones!

 

[Sandman365]

From a fans perspective, the more footage the better...can't get enough off-road content. I like the traditional, edited helicopter footage as much as the next guy, but would be nice incorporate drones for additional, and more immediate, content consumption. As most of us watch video on laptops, tablets, etc..most drone video quality is good. I know I've seen some amazing drone footage.

Since it's probably an either/or situation with helicopters for safety reasons, perhaps try it out on the many not-shot-for-TV races. As it gets figured out, and technology improves, maybe find a way to incorporate drones into the bigger races.

 

[bdk]

I for one will not be "avoiding" crashing drones!

Let me just clarify that it would not be to avoid damaging the drone, but the car. Lots of potential for tire damage etc.