Near Misses Lead To More Consumer Drone Legislation

stowie writes: Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has introduced the Consumer Drone Safety Act that looks to shore up safety features on consumer drones and the federal laws that govern them. This bill has nothing to do with the FAA's proposed rules on small commercial drones, this is all about hobbyist drones. It's looking to regulate the maximum height for flight, the weather and time-of-day conditions for flight, and any areas where flights may be prohibited. If passed, the act would require manufacturers to update existing consumer drones to meet these requirements, potentially through an automatic software update. The bill would require safety features for new consumer drones such as Geo-fencing to govern the altitude and location of flights, collision-avoidance software, and more.

Comments

This is as ignorant as they come.

[TheRealQuestor]

So only multirotors are in the sights. What about Fixed Wing [airplanes/jets/etc], they can do pretty much the exact same thing as Multirotors [I REFUSE to call MRs Drones as drone kill people, no multirotor has so far killed anyone!] And what about Helicopters. Again can do the same as pretty much any Multirotor except they HAVE killed people and yet no mention of them.

The problem is not the technology, it's the idiots who go buy a DJI with 0 idea of what they are doing and lose control and fly in places they should not.

The media then plays on the fears of the average joe who doesn't know the difference between a "Drone" after seeing images like this
preditor drone and this Multirotor

I build multirotors for people all the time, I fly them all the time, and I have yet to hurt anyone or anything other than the multirotor itself.

Re:Feinstein as usual

[PopeRatzo]

It is a signifier of respect for the citizens and their capacity to reason what is right/wrong and act thereupon.

Have you had a look at your fellow citizens? Have you seen how they behave? We've got the most violent developed country in the world, and you expect "respect for the citizens and their capacity to reason what is right/wrong and act thereupon"?

Half of Americans believe in ghosts. 38% believe in UFOs and 80% believe the government is covering up evidence of UFOs. Half believe climate change is a conspiracy by liberal scientists. Twenty percent of all Americans are on some kind of psychiatric drug.

OK, that leaves about half the people that can (theoretically) reason. I don't want the other half to be flying drones. Or driving cars or having firearms (but those are arguments for another day).