And also autonomous battle tanks !!

The technology of autonomous vehicles continues its unstoppable development, although its possible applications depend on the “risk” they pose to people.

And what in the “civil” world is not acceptable in terms of certain security of the people, sometimes it’s acceptable in the “military” world because it is used by professionals prepared for those activities.

That is why, in addition to drones and ships, tests are being carried out with autonomous combat tanks. These vehicles can transport people or supplies, and also have firepower (machine guns or cannons) to shoot down enemies. This new species of robots with weapons and a certain capacity for “intelligence” are called in the technical slang UGV’s

But one thing is to patrol and transfer people and quite another is to open fire on possible enemies, and do it autonomously. They are two risks of very different levels.

At the moment, all these vehicles are given the ability to move autonomously, but when shooting, it must be a trained person who makes the decision (even if that person is many kilometers away), with the information provided by the systems deployed on the ground.

Artificial Intelligence advances by leaps and bounds, but it is still not allowed to make the decision to shoot at people autonomously. I don’t know if it will be a matter of time.

What is very clear is that this type of vehicle very significantly reduces the risks of conducting patrols on the ground. In the event that the vehicle is destroyed by the enemy, this action does not produce human losses but only material losses that can be better assumed.

In the next ten years, these “smart battle tanks” will be seen in many conflict zones, and they will carry out more and more activities by themselves. Let’s hope they don’t decide for themselves who they shoot and who they don’t. Human lives cannot be subject to possible “mistakes” by machines.