Should you’ve been questioning whenever you’ll be capable of order the flame-throwing robotic that Ohio-based Throwflame first introduced final summer time, that day has lastly arrived. The Thermonator, what Throwflame payments as “the first-ever flamethrower-wielding robotic canine” is now out there for buy. The worth? $9,420.
Thermonator is a quadruped robotic with an ARC flamethrower mounted to its again, fueled by gasoline or napalm. It contains a one-hour battery, a 30-foot flame-throwing vary, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity for distant management by a smartphone.
It additionally features a Lidar sensor for mapping and impediment avoidance, laser sighting, and first-person-view navigation by an onboard digital camera. The product seems to combine a model of the Unitree Go2 robotic quadruped that retails alone for $1,600 in its base configuration.
The corporate lists doable purposes of the brand new robotic as “wildfire management and prevention,” “agricultural administration,” “ecological conservation,” “snow and ice elimination,” and “leisure and SFX.” However most of all, it units issues on hearth in quite a lot of real-world eventualities.
Again in 2018, Elon Musk made the information for providing an official Boring Firm flamethrower that reportedly offered 10,000 items in 48 hours. It sparked some controversy, as a result of flamethrowers may double as weapons or doubtlessly begin wildfires.
Flamethrowers will not be particularly regulated in 48 US states, though basic product legal responsibility and felony legal guidelines should still apply to their use and sale. They’re not thought-about firearms by federal companies. Particular restrictions exist in Maryland, the place flamethrowers require a Federal Firearms License to personal, and California, the place the vary of flamethrowers can’t exceed 10 ft.
Even so, to state the plain, flamethrowers can simply burn each issues and other people, beginning fires and wreaking havoc if not used safely. Accordingly, the Thermonator is perhaps one Christmas current you must skip for little Johnny this 12 months.
This story initially appeared on Ars Technica.