Watch Palmer Luckey’s new AI-powered kamikaze drone obliterate a pickup truck [Video]

What just happened? Amid an increasing number of news stories about AI-powered autonomous drones, Palmer Luckey’s Anduril Industries has unveiled its latest takes on the technology: the Bolt and Bolt-M. The latter is especially impressive/terrifying, able to deliver a three-pound explosive to a target that causes the drone to self-destruct.

Luckey is still best known as the man who founded Oculus VR and designed the Oculus Rift, but he left the VR company in 2017 to found defense contractor Anduril Industries.

The first drone in the video, the Bolt, is designed for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. Anduril’s video shows it being operated via an almost Steam Deck-like handheld device as the operator programs its route on the screen.

Its AI smarts allow the drone to follow a target autonomously, even when it is obscured by the likes of trees. The …