U.S. Will Require Drones to Be Registered • Hacker News Board

Re: U.S. Will Require Drones to Be Registered

#91

Post by themartorana » Sun, Oct 18, 2015, 3:14 AM UTC

objclxt wrote: post #22

striking wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But then again, what if people start harvesting people's identities from the drones through the identifier? I think it's a neat idea, but it straddles the 4th Amendment line and could potentially expose your identity to people who don't like drones.

...really? Because both aircraft and road vehicles today have identifiers painted or printed on them. What about driving around with a license plate or flying with a tail number? What's the difference?

Aircraft and cars kill people daily. Constantly. Cars more. Aircraft sometimes more tragically.

Re: U.S. Will Require Drones to Be Registered

#92

Post by themartorana » Sun, Oct 18, 2015, 3:15 AM UTC

guelo wrote: post #86

narrator wrote: post #61

All the big consumer drone makers are in China. I love how all sorts of unregulated surprisingly powerful tech comes out of China. The last mischief they engaged in was way too powerful lasers. They just don't have the fear of science in that country like we have in America.

It's all invented here.

No it's not.

Re: U.S. Will Require Drones to Be Registered

#93

Post by themartorana » Sun, Oct 18, 2015, 3:19 AM UTC

mindcrime wrote: post #66

pinaceae wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

replace drone with car. still stupid?

It's generally harder to build a car than a drone, so the analogy really doesn't hold. But yes, car registration is still stupid.

Also cars are multi-ton objects moving at incredible speed operated by a texting driver which routinely fly into each other causing death and dismemberment daily. Daily.

Re: U.S. Will Require Drones to Be Registered

#94

Post by nether » Sun, Oct 18, 2015, 3:31 AM UTC

Malstrond wrote: post #4

I'm wondering how this will be implemented. If used recreationally, they're R/C flying models, no matter how much the DJI marketing dept likes the term. So will the the hobby that has been fine for decades be hit too? Will you have to register a Cheerson CX-Stars that weighs 8g? What about the congressional Special Rule for Model Aircraft? "Technically it's not the FAA so we can regulate everything!" or what? They're…

The registration will probably only apply to drones of a certain gross weight. I'm guessing it'll be somewhere around 20 lb, given that's how much the frozen turkeys weigh that they use for birdstrike testing.

Re: U.S. Will Require Drones to Be Registered

#95

Post by hueving » Sun, Oct 18, 2015, 3:59 AM UTC

swingbridge wrote: post #79

plantain wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is nothing about aviation GPS's that make them high accuracy. In fact they're mostly inferior to consumer GPS equipment. What drives up the cost is certification of the equipment.

Certification and also a lot more technology behind figuring out when the position data is inaccurate. Aviation GPS units will run forward looking simulations (for example when flying a GPS landing approach) and figure out that satellites are about to be in a suboptimal position and warn the pilot accordingly.

That's still a simple thing to do with software. The cost of the device shouldn't go up because of that.

Re: U.S. Will Require Drones to Be Registered

#96

Post by TeMPOraL » Sun, Oct 18, 2015, 4:05 AM UTC

dronehire wrote: post #78

Evolved wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are correct and I don't think sitting in the pilot's seat but not having your hands on the controls qualifies as "unmanned." Again, UAVs are not computer-flown. They're remotely piloted. They are not completely autonomous (yet.)

> Again, UAVs are not computer-flown. They're remotely piloted. They are not completely autonomous (yet.) This is incorrect. Most popular consumer-level autopilot systems used by companies like DJI and 3D Robotics have complete autonomous functionality (except sense and avoid capability) which allows the user to input a flight path and then watch the drone take off, fly through the checkpoints and then land, complete…

As opposed to military killer-drones. Which goes back to upthread concerns. Military drones are remote-operated, not autonomous.

Re: U.S. Will Require Drones to Be Registered

#97

Post by Dylan16807 » Sun, Oct 18, 2015, 4:09 AM UTC

tailgate wrote: post #77

ctdonath wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a few hours' training to teach a basic skill most of them will use (along with all the other "not all of them will use it" things they do or should learn). Those who don't formally learn will still likely end up behind a wheel anyway, documented or not - and it's those non-documented ones who are precisely the ones we particularly DO want to ensure are trained one way or another.

In what universe is learning to drive a "few" hours? At minimum most courses I know of have 10-20 hours of lecture type instruction.

When it comes to an entire course, that's few. If you took the whole school day it would be 2-3 days. It's barely anything.

Re: U.S. Will Require Drones to Be Registered

#98

Post by mikeash » Sun, Oct 18, 2015, 4:14 AM UTC

hueving wrote: post #95

swingbridge wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Certification and also a lot more technology behind figuring out when the position data is inaccurate. Aviation GPS units will run forward looking simulations (for example when flying a GPS landing approach) and figure out that satellites are about to be in a suboptimal position and warn the pilot accordingly.

That's still a simple thing to do with software. The cost of the device shouldn't go up because of that.

That makes no sense, unless your software guys work for free. The cost of software development has to be paid for out of the price of the devices. Aviation is a very limited market, so you don't have a lot of sales to amortize those costs.

Re: U.S. Will Require Drones to Be Registered

#99

Post by mikeash » Sun, Oct 18, 2015, 4:16 AM UTC

ctdonath wrote: post #39

objclxt wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you apply the same logic to cars? Because I think all of your points apply equally to cars, but nobody seems to object to the idea of both registering them and requiring a license to drive.

Yes. Make driver education mandatory in public school. A vehicle tag should simply identify the vehicle out of a sea of mixed clones (a la: which blue Mustang?). I actually think the U.S. Founding Fathers would have enumerated a "right to vehicular travel" if they had conceived of license-as-a-privilege restriction on horseless carriages.

Or maybe they would have been scared completely senseless seeing tons of steel being piloted by an idiot with no training at speeds they didn't even know were possible for humans to achieve.

Either way, I couldn't care less about what people who died 200+ years ago would have thought about cars, except in an abstract "wouldn't it be cool to show George Washington a modern car and see how he reacts" sort of way.

Re: U.S. Will Require Drones to Be Registered

#100

Post by mikeash » Sun, Oct 18, 2015, 4:18 AM UTC

canow wrote: post #84

Evolved wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Drone" covers all UAVs/RPVs whether small enough to fit on your palm or large enough to need a full size air strip to launch. All UAVs are drones and all drones are UAVs. Not all drones are quadcopters but all quadcopters are drones. Even in the strictest definition, what we commonly call "R/C Planes/Helicopters" actually qualify as "drones." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmanned_aerial_vehicle

ok, so just use an helicopter and load it with some random human and you'll be fine... no restrictions (as long as you don't crash). I'll use this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hughes-269A-Helicopter-/201447206828...

You might be interested to learn that the FAA has strict regulations on the registration and operation of helicopters, and the licensing of their pilots.