Skip to main content

Drone embarrassment

A drone enthusiast captured the embarrassing moment that the driver of an Uber vehicle unsuccessfully tried to cross a tidal causeway in the UK. The drone owner was taking some aerial footage when he spotted the car making the crossing from the Holy Island back to the mainland. The tide was rushing in however, resulting in the car getting a good soaking. Luckily the driver managed to reach a higher point in the crossing so that the vehicle was saved from being totally awash. One of the passengers was rather
April 13, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
A drone enthusiast captured the embarrassing moment that the driver of an Uber vehicle unsuccessfully tried to cross a tidal causeway in the UK. The drone owner was taking some aerial footage when he spotted the car making the crossing from the Holy Island back to the mainland. The tide was rushing in however, resulting in the car getting a good soaking. Luckily the driver managed to reach a higher point in the crossing so that the vehicle was saved from being totally awash. One of the passengers was rather less than impressed although the other, a Buddhist monk, waved enthusiastically at the drone before it was flown back to its owner. The local lifeboat was called out to rescue the passengers, while the vehicle was relatively unharmed and was able to drive away when the tide receded. Hopefully its owner has made sure to wash the salt water away from his vehicle to prevent future corrosion. The Holy Island Causeway has set crossing times when safe crossings can be made. The driver is likely to check these more closely in the future.

Related Content

  • Road safety move for young drivers
    April 11, 2024
    A new road safety focus for young drivers will save lives
  • Road repairs take to the air
    November 29, 2018
    Automated road repairs using 3D printing could save money and reduce disruption, reports Kristina Smith It’s the middle of the night and in the street below a team is busy carrying out repairs to the road surface. But there isn’t a human in sight. A road-repair drone has landed at the site of a crack and a 3D asphalt printer is now busy filling in that crack. A group of traffic cone drones have positioned themselves around the repair location to protect the repair drone and divert traffic around it.
  • VIDEO: Telstra drone LIDAR maps Melbourne’s EastLink Mullum Tunnel
    April 13, 2018
    One of the applications for LIDAR is to make high resolution 3-D maps. Self-driving cars are pre-loaded with a LIDAR map of the trials area in which they are permitted to fully self-drive themselves. The cars also have their own LIDAR scanner which captures a real-time LIDAR view of the vehicle’s surroundings. The fully autonomous driving system within these prototype cars compares the real-time LIDAR view against the pre-loaded LIDAR map to significantly increase the accuracy of their self-positioning
  • Caterpillar Paving offers a guide to efficient night time paving practices
    October 3, 2014
    Efficient night-time paving operations can reduce construction costs and cut traffic delays - *Todd Mansell writes As roads become more congested, the user cost of daytime lane closures to accommodate road construction and paving has increased dramatically. One solution to lower user costs associated with traffic delays is to carry out more paving at night during off-peak times. However night-time paving brings new challenges to producing quality work in safely.