How Tech Companies Are Responding To Hurricane Matthew (vice.com) 38
South Carolina was hit by Hurricane Matthew at 11 a.m. EST, after the hurricane killed at least 300 people in Haiti (with Reuters estimating Haiti's death toll over 800). But as the U.S. declares a state of emergency for Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, and with the power out for more than a million people, an anonymous Slashdot reader looks at the role tech companies are playing in responding to the storm system:
AirBNB "has been advertising free rooms in parts of Florida and South Carolina" reports Motherboard. AirBNB's Disaster Reponse Tool connects people needing shelter with volunteers who are offering their residences for free. Meanwhile, Uber promised to cap its "surge pricing" for the area, while Lyft promised its fares would rise no more than two times their normal rate.
But many escaped the path of the hurricane thanks to Shofur, a startup that books chartered buses and matches riders to low-cost tickets, according to the Daily Dot. "Through Thursday night and into the early morning hours of Friday, Shofur evacuated an estimated 10,000 Floridians and Georgians to areas such as Atlanta, Florida's west coast, and the panhandle."
NASA is also flying a huge 15,000-pound drone over the area to collect real-time weather data, while Verizon is testing a 17-foot drone which may one day provide LTE mobile connectivity to first responders. In addition, a Verizon spokesperson says drone-enabled connectivity has "set the stage" for connecting drones to their IoT platform next year.
But many escaped the path of the hurricane thanks to Shofur, a startup that books chartered buses and matches riders to low-cost tickets, according to the Daily Dot. "Through Thursday night and into the early morning hours of Friday, Shofur evacuated an estimated 10,000 Floridians and Georgians to areas such as Atlanta, Florida's west coast, and the panhandle."
NASA is also flying a huge 15,000-pound drone over the area to collect real-time weather data, while Verizon is testing a 17-foot drone which may one day provide LTE mobile connectivity to first responders. In addition, a Verizon spokesperson says drone-enabled connectivity has "set the stage" for connecting drones to their IoT platform next year.
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AirBNB offering free rooms.
No they aren't. The hosts are offering free rooms. AirBNB is just running a website where those free rooms are listed (and is waiving their normal service fee).
Huzzah for Verizon (Score:2)
A Verizon spokesperson says drone-enabled connectivity has "set the stage" for connecting drones to their IoT platform next year.
Sounds cool. I mean, what could possibly go wrong with that.
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A Verizon spokesperson says drone-enabled connectivity has "set the stage" for connecting drones to their IoT platform next year.
Sounds cool. I mean, what could possibly go wrong with that.
For sure. That sentence contains several words that should make your ass twitch: drones, drone-enabled, IoT, Verizon.
Scammers gonna scam (Score:1)
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not sure if you're being sarcastic or not, because screwing people over is their entire business model.
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Joke post?
Industries from nuclear to dairy are more heavily regulated.
Insurance is literally a reverse lottery. It's all about screwing people more than you pay out, on average.
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Insurance is for limiting your exposure to risk
This is true for home and auto insurance. It is NOT true for health insurance. Health insurance is a protection racket, and if you don't pay up, you will billed by your doctor or hospital from twice to ten times as much.
it's not terribly difficult to understand.
Yes it is. Ask most people what their insurance covers, and they will give you a wrong answer. Then give them their insurance bill and documents, and have them read them. Then ask them again, and they will still give you a wrong answer. Insurance documents are specifically designed to
AirBNB... (Score:3)
AirBNB is "waiving the service fee for those free hosts" (how nice of them
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Yep.
AirBRB isn't a tech company, Lyft and Uber aren't tech companies, and NASA/NOAA/NWS aren't companies at all.
The only tech company listed is Verizon, ish.
Verizon is NOT "deploying" a drone (Score:2)
They're doing a completely unrelated *test* of a drone in New Jersey, which has absolutely zero to do with the hurricane and isn't going to be helping anyone in the actual disaster area.
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I bet they're itching to get some of these drones deployed next time. I've had The Weather Channel streaming as background noise for the past couple of days, and the reporters have been frequently mentioning that Verizon service is down, calling out Verizon specifically instead of just saying "cell service is down." Outages are to be completely expected during this type of event, but it's still not great advertising for vzw.
Why is a rental company now a tech company? (Score:2)
And Samsung... (Score:1)
Pounds??? (Score:2)
Is that 15,000 British Pound Stirling, or a mass of about 6.3 tonne?
It is about time the the USA started using standard units, and gave up on the old Imperial System!!!
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It is about time the the USA started using standard units, and gave up on the old Imperial System!!!
Wouldn't it be simpler for the British to just rename their currency?
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In The Storm (Score:2)
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Cool, I'm in Jacksonville also. (near 103rd westside)