Uber's terrifying marketing drones aren't coming back any time soon

Earlier this year, Uber deployed drones in Mexico City to hover near vehicles stuck in traffic while displaying advertisements for UberPOOL, the company's carpool service.

The ads said a few different things about the advantages of sharing rides — that two and a half years of commuting time could be saved, that "the city would be for you, not for 5.5 million cars."

The marketing stunt managed to fly under the radar for a few months, but it blew up after Bloomberg published a photo of the drones last week. Outlets called them creepy, badgering, mocking and more. This all makes sense, because they're disturbing as hell, like something the totalitarian Combine aliens would use to demoralize humankind in Half-Life 2. Read more...