When I was a kid, my little brother was pulled out in a riptide. One second he was near the shore; the next, he was a rounding error on the Atlantic. This was North Carolina, where they don’t spring for lifeguards. My parents, uncles, aunts and several other adults formed a human chain and miraculously nabbed him.
Everyone was safe. Everyone was exhausted. Everyone was pretty f*cking terrified.
And I’m pretty sure everyone would agree that it would’ve been nice to have a U-SAFE, a new robotic lifeguard out of Portugal (aka the land of epic surf). The horseshoe-shaped floatation device has water jets (like a jetski) and can be controlled remotely by a thumb-sized joystick from land or a boat. NORAS, the company behind it, has plans to make it solar-powered and have it locate victims via GPS.
Now, before you gripe that another frickin’ robot means curtains for our humble lifeguarding industry, let me assuage your fears: someone qualified will still need to man this sucker.
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