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

Re:Feinstein as usual

[ColdWetDog]

We need a consumer protection bill consumer protection bill.

Drone regulation?

[TheCreeep]

Can we regulate the usage of stupid "share" buttons on slashdot?

Re:Feinstein as usual

[Archangel Michael]

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.

Goodbye to Affordable Drones

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Feinstein as usual

[exomondo]

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.

Open Source Bitch.

[spacepimp]

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.

Let's try this for a law

[kbsoftware]

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.

Re:Let's try this for a law

[Ol Olsoc]

So are you saying you are one of the stupid people who would fly your drone in an irresponsible and dangerous way?

Oh man, Talk about not getting the reference. Since you aren't American, we'll not hold that against you.

Google National Rifle Association, and you'll figure that one out. I was just doing a little bit of satire.

I don't live in America but from what I hear the police there have zero problems with the "cold dead hands"

You gather wrong. One of the oddest things I've ever seen is how many people who don't live in America seem to think we are a nation soley comprised of laid-off people living in abject poverty, and are target practice for the police, while the wealthy 1 percenters watch our demise with glee. Everyone is racist, members of a militia, far right Christian cultists, and spend all our time watching reality TV while padding our 400 pound frames with Big Gulps and Cheetos.

When in fact, it's rather nice here.

Share?! What happened to "read more" link?

[caseih]

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.

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.