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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.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
We need a consumer protection bill consumer protection bill.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Yeah, fuck Feinstein. But at the same time.. Fuck stupid fucking idiots who think flying their remote controlled aircraft into the flight paths of airliners, helicopters, whatever for the goddamned lulz.
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
Can we regulate the usage of stupid "share" buttons on slashdot?
Here's an idea. If you get caught, you get Attempted Murder, assault and all the other charges that should apply. We already have enough laws on the books. We don't need "using a __________ " tack-on charges.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
We have to have laws because some people just can't help being dicks.
Say good bye to affordable drones for hobbyists. Now all drones will have to have a gps module, an altimeter, a microcontroller, and a microprocessor capable of processing all this, extensive software to handle all of this data, .... .
Instead of safety legislation, lets just hold individuals who misuse drones accountable when they do something stupid.
If I'm the shooter, it was nearly a hit.
If I'm the target, "Whew, just missed me."
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
But at the same time.. Fuck stupid fucking idiots who think flying their remote controlled aircraft into the flight paths of airliners, helicopters, whatever for the goddamned lulz.
This is why these laws happen, morons who can't grasp the concept that just because you have a drone that can fly anywhere doesn't mean you have the right to fly that drone anywhere, they actually need to be told that.
This is why the Flight Controller I use is Open Source. Control mongers like Diane Feinstein have no say in the software. This is the same lady pushing for back doored encryption. There is nothing in the interest of citizens that runs through her veins. One day she will attack open source as an enemy of the state.
The FAA is already doing this. What part of Diane Feinstein needs to put input about what the updates to the software will be? I trust her lying Surveillance State pushing anti liberty perspective in no way whatsoever. The software and hardware I use is open source so people like her cannot control yet another aspect of my life.
If I drink and drone, and do something illegal I deserve the punishment. People like her would mandate we cannot drive our own cars, because what if we do something that endangers the children.
Being a dick isn't against the law.
Assholes and Dicks always skirt around the edges. Yelling at the top of your lungs, hate filled slogans laced with profanity shouldn't be against the law. On the other hand, punching that asshole in the face also shouldn't be against the law ;)
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Here's a novel idea. How about instead of creating laws for drone manufacturers to try and protect everyone from stupid people how about we create laws to deal with the stupid people. Here's how it works, clean slate everyone can buy a drone if they wish. Once someone does something stupid like fly your drone too close to planes/helicopters, of fly your drone in a crowded area and so forth then that person has their drone taken away, they are charged accordingly and are put on a permanent banned list and never allowed to buy another drone again. Even better let's make a stupid people list so we can stop or help stupid people from continuing to make stupid decisions.
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.
Can you explain how the FEDERAL Aviation Administration has any Constitutional power to regulate a drone with a range of a couple of hundred feet?
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.
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).
You are welcome on my lawn.
Every day, thousands of unlicensed people operate machines that amount to no more than whirling blades of death. These machines are powered by the distilled essence of the dead no less. They have a long history of maiming and killing the innocent, even children. You can buy these infernal machines with no background check, no license, not even an ID. The sellers of these contraptions aren't even required to be licensed.
We need to control these so-called "lawn mowers" NOW, before they kill us all!