Drones are literally everywhere. As I drove through my neighborhood a few days ago, I saw a teenager flying what looked to be a DJI Phantom in his front yard and just a couple dozen feet from my car as I passed by. Drones have gone from a very niche and expensive hobby interest toward a mainstream consumer and commercial success. And it’s only just begun.
The storylines continue to focus on the FAA’s regulations and the public’s restrictions as the technology is far out-pacing the legal and regulatory guidelines. While there is a loose framework for registration in place for the general public and their personal use of drones, legitimate technological restrictions are hardly competent to keep a drone from either accidentally or intentionally causing a major catastrophe.
As it stands now, we are still living in the wild west of the drone tech boom. Just about anyone can fly a drone just about anywhere – regardless of whether there are regulatory restrictions in place or not. The FAA is woefully undermanned to address all of the reported violations and local law enforcement remains untrained on the regulations and/or completely lack jurisdiction to enforce those regulations.
This is all a recipe for disaster. [Read more…]
