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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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In many Alpine ski resorts there are a lot of paraglider and speedrider pilots (of which I am one, in Chamonix).
Although we're not allowed to fly directly above pistes I can imagine these drones being very popular off-piste (i.e backcountry) where we often paraglide. A collision with an untethered drone *probably* wouldn't be too dangerous assuming the rotor blades are surrounded with a shroud but if it were tethered to the skier/boarder then the likelihood of it becoming tangled is quite high and could easily cause major problems for the paraglider pilot.
Luckily Chamonix is a very traditional resort so I'd expect these drones to be banned anywhere near the piste and (hopefully) off-piste as well, however it would be almost impossible to police off-piste!
Funny I think the same thing about people with cars and guns. Yet somehow as a species we're content with the massive injury and death rate from those activities but a petrified from the highly remote chance that we may get killed by a terrorist, attacked by a shark, or hit by a falling drone.
Ahhh you must be one of those, "He mentioned guns so he must thing it should all be illegal, I better rebuff" types.
No, couldn't be further from the truth, you misunderstood what I was trying to say. I was saying that compared to getting killed by falling drones the above list is far more dangerous to the general health of people, and THEY ARE ALL LEGAL.
So everyone needs to take a deep breath, get some perspective and realise that getting killed by a flying drone is about likely as a terrorist attack. You should worry more about driving to a ski slope than dying on it.