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Are Tethers the Answer To the Safety Issues of Follow-Me Drone Technology?
Hallie Siegel (2973169) writes Camera-equipped follow-me drone technology is hitting the scene in spades, promising extreme sports enthusiasts and others amazing aerial shots. Imagine, your own dynamic tripod that follows you on command. But what about the safety issue of having follow-me drones crowding the ski slopes? The tethered Fotokite addresses these concerns while sidestepping FAA regulations.
Sorry, but the logic here escapes me. Aren't the danger of crossed-tethers exponentially greater than the danger of colliding drones?
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I really don't want (amateur) pilots flying swarms of anything over my head at the beach/ski-slope/swimming pool. And tethering the drones to the pilots will mitigate what exactly?
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
Each public flight should be insured with the insurance agency knowing the risks of each flight. Tethers do nothing but add an additional liability as they add weight, may get caught up in trees or power lines, and will potentially cause damage in the case of a vehicle crash.
... call your office.
Good, now slap drones are a reality. I wouldn't mind having a slap drone following me around, despite the social stigma, because nobody ever talks to me anyway. But do these things have any conversational skills? I'm guessing no.
.No, antigravity is.
I don't think drones will ever be capable of doing anything well but causing chaos in the sky's. The shear numbers would certainly not be controllable in any safe way. Just look at the complex safety net we have for airplanes. When you look at what a company like Amazon wants to do with drones and then you multiply that by every other retailer who then decides to do the same thing. Then add in typical uses, like law enforcement, news reporting, and other uses for drones which I am sure would be many. You are talking about far exceeding any ability to control drone traffic especially in large cities. I don't envy the FAA having to try and decide what to do about drones over American sky's. Especially when you consider, the local air traffic, is already crowded in lower elevations from small aircraft, helicopters, and other craft. If I was Amazon I would not hold my breath that the FAA will allow them to release thousands of drones over America any time soon.
I'm sure the tether lines of multiple drones would never get crossed and cause any problems. Right?
A brain is a terrible thing to waste... Mind? That's debatable.
No.
Never happened. True story.
I guess what you're trying to say is that you're a lawyer?
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
simply no.
It's not side-stepping FAA regulations because kites are not regulated by the FAA in the first place.
With Yahoos like this running around?Sometimes, the best thing is to NOT have a gun.
Home protection? Maybe. Although, it's hard to get to a gun when it's locked up and unloaded while the "bad" guy is kicking down your door.
I prefer baseball bats and mace.
Bullets go through walls and kill innocents - even a .22 long will go through a plaster board wall if you're not lucky enough to hit a stud.
And some people with their 9mms, .223s or even 7.62mm for home protection?! WTF are they thinking?! I guess they want to take out whoever is in the house from another room?! Sight unseen - spraying bullets?!
I'm a gun FAN; not a gun NUT - I respect when and where they are appropriate for use.
And I also know when to not LOOK for or WANT trouble.
Jesus christ, what a terrible solution to it.
Air-vid.com aerial pilot finder.
Anyone who is not a mentally incapable baboon can see this is far more dangerous, it's not about safety at all, it's just about finding a loophole in the regulation.
Perhaps I missed something, but the linked article (and also the Fotokite product/site) has absolutely nothing to do with safety. It talks about privacy/transparency.
A tether to a person on the ground only makes the devices even more unsafe, as they now get tangled with each other and other environmental hazards. Perhaps it would limit its range (which is not mentioned in the article), but a heavy device falling is a heavy device falling.
One thing that would increase drone safety would be an automatic parachute so when they do collide or lose power or go ape crazy, it can more softly return to earth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Control line aircraft are, according to some, (and citations of the supposed FAA response are never available) "motorized kites." Therefore having a permanent tether to the aircraft makes this model no longer subject to the same rules as a untethered aircraft (in theory). I am not sure if these are really parallel arguments though.
If use of a tether allows commercial operation of "camera drones" to resume then it is probably a good thing. Responsible operators taking reasonable precautions and safely operating their equipment allow for some useful services. There should be oversight for these operations though, but the industry should be encouraged not banned.
I do not want some yahoo with a model to crash and then think they have no responsibility to the resulting property damage though...
Laugh, it's good for you!
I think that as self-driving car technology improves, the collision detection technology will find its way into drones. This is not much of a safety issue. More of an annoyance. Welcome to the new world, just get used to shit whizzing through the air and doing stuff.
Currently hooked on AMP
Given how inconsiderate people are when it comes to technology I entirely expect the first users to walk into fancy restaurants and fly them around inside and raise hell when they're asked to leave because 'there's no rule against it huehuehue.' It's like people at the park flying their RC helicopters at people because 'it's just a toy!' Yeah a toy that will fuck up your eyes with even the shitty cheap plastic models.
Drone + tether = kite
Densely populated urban areas like New Your City have a plethora of exposed and uninsulated power line strung all over. Persons holding onto their drown tether, like a Drone Leash of sorts, will be executed as the tether encounters a power line.
Drone tether is NOT a good solution, unless you are Obama and desperate to implement the IPCC's "Kill Whitey and Kill CO2" program.
I really rue the day that "r/c model aircraft" because a "drone". Suddenly, a toy is worth regulating, and it's become rather ridiculous.
Now we're talking about having to tether a model aircraft with a line, so that now we have entanglement issues?
Can somebody please add some reason?
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
Well, I RTFA and it's bullshit. I was hoping for a way to have a drone follow you automatically by following the tension of the tether, like a kite, but that's not the case here. What I'd like to find is a way to hook up the drone/kite to me while mountain biking / extreme skiing and have it film from above while not having to control it. Does such a thing exist ?
Non-Linux Penguins ?
Just imagine these on a crowded ski slope, when every other ski runner has these. Not only will they tangle with each other, but also with the overhead ropes of ski lifts.
And if your particularly unlucky one stretch of tether might get tangled behind a rock while another stretch of the same tether gets tangled around a fellow skiers neck. No, I don't want these on any slope where I am skying. Even if the FAA don't have jurisdiction, hopefully the resorts will forbid them.
http://vimeo.com/69445277