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More Drones Set To Use US Air Space

Posted by Unknown on from the pakistan-can't-have-all-the-fun dept.

Dupple writes with a quote from the BBC about more testing of Predator drones in U.S. air space: "Tests have been carried out to see whether military drones can mix safely in the air with passenger planes. The tests involved a Predator B drone fitted with radio location systems found on domestic aircraft that help them spot and avoid other planes. The tests will help to pave the way for greater use of drones in America's domestic airspace."

6 of 223 comments (clear)

  1. Who do I have to salute? by paiute · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Say farewell forever to even the concept of posse comitatus, limited as it was. Now it is just a Latin phrase you never heard of.

    --
    If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
    1. Re:Who do I have to salute? by fustakrakich · · Score: 5, Informative

      Posse comitatus does not prohibit the use of the military against civilians. It only states that congress must authorize it, meaning the local sheriff, mayor, or governor can't call in federal troops. Only congress and the president can do that. So it's still wide open.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  2. This will be important... by RobinH · · Score: 5, Funny

    Eventually other countries will have drone capability, and will be flying them over US soil. It's important that we develop the technology to do it safely. ;)

    --
    "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
  3. Re:hate my country by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Your country is not the one putting this forth. The current set of "leaders" is. Vote them out next Tuesday.

    2008 called, they want their optimism back

  4. Pilots Soon To Go by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Make no mistake. As soon as the body of safety data gets large enough we will see the elimination of pilots on commercial air craft. Once it is established that the bots drones are safer than human pilots another trade will vanish. Commercial trucking is on the edge of eliminating human drivers already. The safty record looks good and computized drivers do not break rules, speed, or go mental from the boredom.
                        The purpose of technology has always been to eliminate human labor. The catch is that we have no social structure at hand to take care of the many millions being displaced by job losses due to better technologies.

  5. Re:Pew pew by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why do people freak out if we send unmanned drones up to surveil things, but if you stick a guy in the plane suddenly it's OK?

    Most of the protection of your privacy is economic, rather than legal or technological. A guy in a plane or a helicopter is Not Cheap, per hour, which creates a sort of 'de facto probable cause' requirement, since the cops can only justify sending one up if they think that they'll find something worth finding.

    Drones are cheaper(still pretty expensive now, getting less so), which means that the economic disincentives to surveillance fall and people enjoy less actual protection from surveillance(since the strict legal protections are markedly lower than the historical economic ones).