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Near Misses Lead To More Consumer Drone Legislation

Posted by samzenpus on from the learning-to-fly dept.

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.

3 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. What does this do... by roc97007 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    .... to "simple" drones, that don't have altitude sensors or gps? Both of my daughter's drones have simple leveling sensors and that's pretty much it. Would unsophisticated drones be illegal by this bill?

    --
    Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
  2. Share?! What happened to "read more" link? by caseih · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Umm, so why does Dice think we need a "share" button in place of a simple link to read the articles and comments? I realize I can click on the title of the article, and I found out while hovering the mouse cursor that I can click on the little comment bubble. But neither of those actions is obvious or discoverable. Please bring back the "read more" link! Come on guys. Thought you'd learned your lesson with the beta site fiasco. For a while I thought slashdot had leveled out, but now it's going downhill again.

  3. Awesome! Let's apply that to Senators as well! by gavron · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I'd like Diane Feinstein to be geo-fenced to keep her grubby little NSA-sucking
    encryption-hating lying hands off of issues that are over her altitude or too far
    for her eyesight to comprehend.

    Geo-fencing for worthless corrupt senators. Now there's an answer.

    Leave the drones alone. They are innocent of any wrongdoing.

    E