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FAA issuing new rules to allow drones to fly over people and at night

reuters.com

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Re: FAA issuing new rules to allow drones to fly over people and at night

#21

Post by pc86 »

lumost wrote: post #11
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a lot of doubts on the cost/efficiency of this. Keeping things airborne will always cost a lot more energy than rolling things around. Ground-based delivery robots make some sense, air-based ones likely don't.

It's likely that the energy cost of drone delivery is a small fraction of the cost a human delivery driver incurs walking to a stoop, particularly if one considers the not insignificant injury risk. flight is appealing over ground based drones as one delivery truck or base station could concurrently service multiple blocks with lower risk of someone abducting or damaging the drone. Although in all honesty I'm not sur…

You're naive if you think a company is going to take on increases costs via drone-based deliveries to marginally decrease delivery driver injury risk.

Re: FAA issuing new rules to allow drones to fly over people and at night

#22

Post by pc86 »

zython wrote: post #8

Anyone want to bet in what capacity this will be used for (police) surveillance ? Especially since Alphabet and Amazon are involved.

I could see automated license plate reader and facial recognition use cases for sure. Depending on how high the drone flies FR may or may not be feasible.

Re: FAA issuing new rules to allow drones to fly over people and at night

#23

Post by brk »

jmercouris wrote: post #2

This will revolutionize the delivery industry. I imagine trucks will become mobile drone carriers with drones landing and taking off with packages as they travel through the city.

I tend to doubt that happening soon. There are still a lot of logistical issues to drones flying around trying to deliver packages to the appropriate locations without a lot of live human supervision. IMO, this more opens up a potential market to justify investment in the space to create solutions.

Re: FAA issuing new rules to allow drones to fly over people and at night

#24

Post by DoofusOfDeath »

I was about to have a knee-jerk reaction to this, but I just realized I may misunderstand what the rules actually allow.

My worst-case scenario, perhaps totally unrealistic, is that this allows a drone with a camera to hover over my property, peeping in through the windows.

Are there any current / upcoming rules that prevent that?

Re: FAA issuing new rules to allow drones to fly over people and at night

#25

Post by hatsunearu »

kreeben wrote: post #20
xnx wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the crazy thought that drones ladden with deliveries could dispatch from the top of a central tall structure (like a skyscraper or antenna), take advantage of the height differential to efficiently glide toward their delivery destination, and then make their return with less weight to carry. Probably very few locales where this could make sense compared to automated sidewalk deliveries like Starship. The speed…

>> drones ladden with deliveries could dispatch from the top of a central tall structure Wouldn't the cost of elevating the loaded drones to the rooftop of that tall structure negate any monetary gains? Wouldn't the cost be exactly that of simply using grounded vehicles that elevate themselves? (edited for clarity)

lifting those payloads up the tower would just use the commerical power grid and not batteries that you also have to carry up. cables and motors are much more efficient than propellers.

Re: FAA issuing new rules to allow drones to fly over people and at night

#26

Post by skanga »

frisco wrote: post #18
coder543 wrote: post #6

What about changing the rules around commercial use of drone photography / videography? I don't understand why it's fine to use drones to take photos and videos for personal use, and why it's perfectly fine to use the smartphone in your hand for commercially-usable photos and videos, but combine the two and you suddenly have to get an FAA license? That requirement feels very arbitrary, and it feels like a requirement…

As a pilot, the dynamics of flying for money are very different than flying for fun or personal reasons. The pressure to make the flight in marginal conditions, or push separation to get the shot, or otherwise just generally fly closer to the limits is real and significant. Adding money (and presumably third parties) totally changes the nature of the operation.

Good point!

Re: FAA issuing new rules to allow drones to fly over people and at night

#27

Post by jdironman »

pc86 wrote: post #19
xnx wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the crazy thought that drones ladden with deliveries could dispatch from the top of a central tall structure (like a skyscraper or antenna), take advantage of the height differential to efficiently glide toward their delivery destination, and then make their return with less weight to carry. Probably very few locales where this could make sense compared to automated sidewalk deliveries like Starship. The speed…

There aren't many warehouses at the top of skyscrapers, though.

And you have to move not only the drones, but also the packages to the top.

Re: FAA issuing new rules to allow drones to fly over people and at night

#28

Post by szhu »

xnx wrote: post #12
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a lot of doubts on the cost/efficiency of this. Keeping things airborne will always cost a lot more energy than rolling things around. Ground-based delivery robots make some sense, air-based ones likely don't.

I had the crazy thought that drones ladden with deliveries could dispatch from the top of a central tall structure (like a skyscraper or antenna), take advantage of the height differential to efficiently glide toward their delivery destination, and then make their return with less weight to carry. Probably very few locales where this could make sense compared to automated sidewalk deliveries like Starship. The speed…

Not an expert in this field by any means, but I feel like most of a helicopter's thrust is used to keep it in the air, even when it's lowering slightly.

Maybe this can be efficient if the drone had a fixed wing so it can glide. Or we can make the "structure" really really tall -- perhaps the delivery plane can launch drones that basically paraglide into the city below, and the drones can fly back to a collection center once they've delivered the payload.

Re: FAA issuing new rules to allow drones to fly over people and at night

#29

Post by crooked-v »

DoofusOfDeath wrote: post #24

I was about to have a knee-jerk reaction to this, but I just realized I may misunderstand what the rules actually allow. My worst-case scenario, perhaps totally unrealistic, is that this allows a drone with a camera to hover over my property, peeping in through the windows. Are there any current / upcoming rules that prevent that?

The article is extremely vague, but from what I understand the rule it's referring to is literally just an (often-ignored) prohibition from flying above people, at any height, that was put in place to at least theoretically reduce the danger of drone crashes.

Re: FAA issuing new rules to allow drones to fly over people and at night

#30

Post by skanga »

pc86 wrote: post #22
zython wrote: post #8

Anyone want to bet in what capacity this will be used for (police) surveillance ? Especially since Alphabet and Amazon are involved.

I could see automated license plate reader and facial recognition use cases for sure. Depending on how high the drone flies FR may or may not be feasible.

Do automated license plate reader work via night vision systems? Could they be made to work?
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