If you’ve ever felt scared to walk home alone in Australia, you are not alone. According to a report conducted earlier this year, one in three Australian women feel that they should not be in public spaces at night, mostly due to sexual harassment on the street.
However UK insurer Direct Line is trying to find an innovative solution to this problem – in the form of drones called Fleetlights.
The concept is like Uber for streetlights – essentially you hire drones through a mobile app to provide you with lighting on your way home.
The drones would fly out to your location, and make a formation to light your way. Once you’re done, the drones fly back to Fleet Control.
The concept has already been trialled in the UK town of Petworth, which has one of the most dangerous roads in the country.
At this stage, there do seem to be a couple of problems with the idea – eg. why not spend the money to get a car home instead, and how much protection does lighting really give? However it’s great that innovative companies are thinking about the problem of street harassment and how to arrive at a solution.
Here’s how it works in action:
