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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.

5 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. Drone regulation? by TheCreeep · · Score: 4, Insightful

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

  2. Re:Feinstein as usual by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.
  3. Open Source Bitch. by spacepimp · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  4. 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.

  5. This is as ignorant as they come. by TheRealQuestor · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.