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A comment on DOT and FAA Propose New Rules for Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems. Parent comment

Re:DOT and FAA Propose New Rules for Small Unmanned Aircraft... by ghaff on Sunday February 15, 2015 @06:42PM (#9054660)
Seriously? There's nothing to keep companies from working to figure out what the challenges/requirements/etc. are for doing home delivery at some point. I also suspect it is quite a long way away and, in the meantime, I don't want to see random companies going all move fast and break things with heavy objects flying through the air above people and in controlled airspaces.
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Re:DOT and FAA Propose New Rules for Small Unmanned Aircraft... by SlipperySlope on Sunday February 15, 2015 @10:14PM (#9055137)
Venture capitalists and self funded R&D want rosy market projections.

Sadly, based on sentiment from USA residents, like yours I suppose, I predict the USA is going to lead with military applications only for UAVs.

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Re:DOT and FAA Propose New Rules for Small Unmanned Aircraft... by eropple on Sunday February 15, 2015 @10:37PM (#9055205)
> Venture capitalists and self funded R&D want rosy market projections.

I want people to not die because somebody "moved fast and broke something."

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Re:DOT and FAA Propose New Rules for Small Unmanned Aircraft... by SlipperySlope on Monday February 16, 2015 @10:28AM (#9057267)
I wonder how many lives would be lost due to failing drones vs lives saved by the timely delivery of medications/defribillators by waypoint-following autonomous air vehicles.

The data will most certainly come either from US military usage or from commercial usage outside the USA. Sad.

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Re:DOT and FAA Propose New Rules for Small Unmanned Aircraft... by eropple on Monday February 16, 2015 @12:26PM (#9057956)
There's nothing stopping your hypothetical company from getting FAA permission for a trial, even in an urban area. Yes, it requires one of those "lawyers", and requires you to have more of a plan than just "eh fuck it, light it up," but those are features, not bugs. But nobody's going to be prevented from doing even urban-scale testing if they are actually taking it seriously and involving the communities they wish to experiment within.

There's a reason these rules look so much like radio regulations: because screwing it up hurts everyone, so it behooves us not to screw up. Doing dangerous things requires buy-in from more than just your shareholders. And stop with the "oh, woe is us" stuff. It's shitty rhetoric and it doesn't work.

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Re:DOT and FAA Propose New Rules for Small Unmanned Aircraft... by SlipperySlope on Monday February 16, 2015 @01:17PM (#9058238)
Well we are talking past each other.

I predict that timely delivery of life saving medications and medical devices will first happen outside of the USA, in jurisdictions favoring UAV innovation.

http://www.uasvision.com/2015/02/10/japan-tests-drone-delive...

http://en.people.cn/n/2015/0209/c98649-8847897.html

And I predict that the in the USA, the military will lead the way with regard to autonomous air vehicle technology for delivery because not the FAA, nor local equivalents, will constrain them where battles are happening.

http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense-news/blog/intercept...

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