FAA Predicts 7 Million Drones By 2020 (timeslive.co.za)

An anonymous reader writes: The FAA is predicting that the number of drones in the U.S. will increase to 7 million by 2020, though they're still prohibited within 15 miles of Washington D.C. Earlier this month a drone even performed the first FAA-sanctioned drone delivery to an urban area, carrying food, water and a first-aid kit in a box attached to a rope, while a team led by a 15-year-old pilot won the $250,000 first-place prize in the first World Drone Prix in Dubai. The FAA logged 538 drone incidents in the U.S. over the last six months, according to a new report released Friday, including hundreds of incidents in which drones approached airports. But while one incident involved a drone within 20 feet of a plane, "the majority of the incidents are minor," reports The Verge, "with pilots or bystanders reporting drones that are flying in restricted airspace without necessarily endangering anyone."

Comments

of course

[NotInHere]

You are lonely if you can't connect your mind to the other drones. All hail the borg queen!

Re:of course

[antdude]

I would like to be assimilated and connected to her. ;)

Verifications please?

[fred911]

" The FAA logged 538 drone incidents in the U.S. over the last six months, according to a new report released Friday, "

And not ONE has been verified, no radar signature or images in controlled airspace, not ONE! Typical FUD.

Re:Verifications please?

[bloodhawk]

no radar signature or images in controlled airspace.

yeah no shit Sherlock. of course all drone pilots are nice law abiding citizens, couldn't have anything to do with the fact most drones don't register on Radar. I am sure the pilots that had near misses and took evasive action are all liars as they didn't stop to take a photo.

Re: Verifications please?

[Budgreen]

If they're treating them like commercial aircraft now those incident reports and accident investigations will be on the NTSB website.

Re:Verifications please?

[NewtonsLaw]

So why the hell, given that they've had cockpit voice and data recorders for decades, don't modern airliners and even light-aircraft have dashcams?

Surely it's not rocket science to fit a dashcam to an airplane and that footage may be invaluable in a crash analysis or when pilots claim to have had a "close call" with a drone.

Seems to me that we've had these hundreds of reports but not a single shred of photographic evidence.

Something stinks!

Re:Verifications please?

[thegarbz]

So why the hell, given that they've had cockpit voice and data recorders for decades, don't modern airliners and even light-aircraft have dashcams?

You give the dashcams too much credit. When you're flying past something about 30x10cm in size (profile view) that doesn't stand out or have brightly coloured markings at 350km/h give a couple of hundred, but not really take anything, then your dash cam may if you're very lucky produce something that looks like a smudge in a single frame of your footage.

Which makes me wonder how many of these were actually birds in the first place.

77M not 7M by 2020

[turkeydance]

based upon nothing more than /. posts.

Re:We need more air.

[fustakrakich]

I think the FAA should mandate Nerf Drones. It'll just bounce off the plane, and the engines should be able to consume one with minimal damage.

More Turtles hit aircraft than UAVs

[fred911]

http://ultratechlife.com/tech/...

Re:We need more air.

[PopeRatzo]

Every drone pilet needs to supply his or her own air for their air space

Serious question: If I'm drunk on my ass and flying my drone, am I breaking a law? I only ask because I've got a new drone, and I've been sipping slivovitz since about 2pm.

Am I a danger to others?

Re:My bucket list

[PopeRatzo]

One of the things that's on my bucket list is to install an AI (when they become sufficiently advanced, maybe a few more years) into a drone and release it and see what it does.

If Microsoft's recent experience with Tay is any indication, your drone will return to you within 24 hours, covered in swastikas and tweeting "Fuck me, daddy" and rap lyrics.

Re:drones vs r/c helicopters

[PopeRatzo]

Reminder drones don't have pilots

Thanks for spoiling the fun, Dad.

Re:We need more air.

[ColdWetDog]

Well, if you registered yourself like you were supposed to do then you clicked on a form that said you would not fly under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Now, enforcement might be a bit spottier than you are used to. You are unlikely to be pulled over by the Drone Police. However, if you were stupid enough to video your behavior and post it on social media, you might get a stern letter from the FAA.

Now, if you tried to make some money off the video, you really be in trouble.

Re:We need more air.

[PopeRatzo]

Well, if you registered yourself [federalregister.gov] like you were supposed to do then you clicked on a form that said you would not fly under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

This is why I'm voting Trump 2016. He'll wipe out all these liberty-killing regulations so drunk drone-flying can be great again.

However, if you were stupid enough to video your behavior and post it on social media

You read my mind.

Re:Politics as usual

[NewtonsLaw]

And the RIAA and MPAA will soon claim that drones have cost them billions in lost revenues -- because the money people spend on these things would be far better off spent buying albums and going to the movies.

Let's face it ... drone owners are pirates stealing from the hungry mouths of record and film executives. Shame on them!

Re:We need more air.

[tnk1]

I was wondering what period of time Trump was going to take us back to, when America was truly great, and I realized that you just hit it on the head.

The right to keep and bear drones, shall not be infringed. When we lost the right to drink and drone, we really did enter a dark age of government overreach. And just think of if it was an uninsured illegal alien who was driving that drone. Won't somebody think of the children?