BMW just embarked on the ambitious goal of making the world’s fastest racing drones, inking a development deal with the Drone Racing League.
According to the league’s CEO, the partnership will boost the German automaker’s reach among millennials.
“We’re attracting a young, excited audience that’s interested in things like technology, video games, drones,” Nicholas Horbaczewski told Cheddar. “So [for brands like BMW] it’s a way to reach those consumers. In the past two years we’ve had over 55 million TV viewers.”
And the DRL is not just about the excitement of the sport, it’s also about the technology. Last year members hand-built a drone with a speed of 162 miles per hour, a record it hopes to break with the help of BMW.
“All the technology that’s used in the league is developed by DRL,” Horbaczewski said. “We design the drones in-house, we design the radio communication equipment in-house … It’s truly a technology innovation company.”
The BMW deal wouldn’t be DRL’s first, though. The league has also partnered with companies such as Swatch, Cox Communications, and insurance firm Allianz.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/the-drone-racing-league-teams-up-with-bmw).
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A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
