[johncearls]

My understanding of the Shahed's is that they are relatively simple. They can be programmed with a certain destination and then have some basic image recognition that allows them to "choose" exactly their target based on computer vision, e.g. the shape of a building or radar station. So in that sense, they are autonomous. To my mind, they are more cheap precision missiles (more like a tomahawk) than an autonomous drone.

Predators are a whole different beast. They are semi-autonomous airplanes, that can be controlled by satellite or AWAC or whatever. Almost certainly with the ability to loiter or escape if they lose contact with their controllers

[YeGoblynQueenne]

Shaheds (some models) have loitering ability, and other "autonomy" features. Tbh the term is as fuzzy as "AGI" or "self-driving" these days because there are a bunch of automatisms that a drone can have that are often labelled so. However, an autonomous system should do much more than go to a designated location and fire at a target that looks like it might be the designated target. I mean to say, pathfinding and image recognition do not autonomy make; or they shouldn't be said to anyway.

As I like to say of course, self-guided missiles are arguably autonomous; but that's just because their whole job is to reach a target while causing maximum damage on hit. That removes many of the requirements of other "autonomous" systems (e.g. self-driving cars).

P.S. I honestly don't know much about Predators but I expect they're going to have the most advanced features available.