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

reuters.com

141–150 of 283 posts

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

#141
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ll never understand people who use drones like this, even ignoring the obvious moral and ethical issues of voyeurism they’re loud and obnoxious at the altitudes you would need to go peeping through windows. Every time I try and assuage fears laypeople have about drones and privacy there’s a story or anecdote about some dumbass who does stuff like this anyway...

If you really want to spy on somebody, you don’t use a noisy buzzing drone right outside a window, or hovering in an otherwise empty sky. Even something as crude as a smartphone on a stick could be more covert. Surprised that even tech enthusiasts are often so fearful of drones while not worried about the hundreds of cameras already filming their activities in most public places.

Even further than this, the type of camera found on most drones is quite terrible for detailed surveillance work. Even if it does have a "high definition" camera recording to local storage these are Gopro style lenses with massive FOV, fisheye distortion and calibrated to handle a very wide range of light exposure up to and including direct sun. Shooting meaningful video through a window is a joke at best. As you've identified the noise generated at distances close enough to resolve any meaningful detail are even more comical

Large lenses are very heavy and benefit greatly from a stable platform. Tripods and low earth orbit are preferred by spies of consequence.

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

#142

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?

Everyone on HN is cheering the relaxation of these rules but I'm angry because of concerns similar to yours. I'm now of the mind of "if you can't fight them join them", I want regulation-free counter-attack drones that destroy any drones that approach my property. But I'm really afraid that this robot vs robot future that we keep rushing towards is not one that we should be creating.

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

#143
post #94
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

oh if you can that would be really cool to see how you did that... I'd love to retrofit something like this to my drone... I did buy my kids a drone and the issue there was they flew it into a very tall tree... needless say it's still in the very tall tree

What you need is a second drone..

What you need is a third drone...

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

#144

Even though I don't fly over people, I retrofitted a parachute onto my DJI drone just in case. It automatically deploys if the drone loses power or control. It doesn't impact flight characteristics or battery life by much. I feel like a basic safety like this would be a prudent and more effective measure for overhead flights than self-transmitting "license plates" (which I agree are at least better than the silly int…

I am always stunned that many (most/all) of these high tech gadgets lack a LOT of safety features. I would pay extra for a drone with such safeguards. just the prospect of less chances of ruining it would be enough. Similarly, eskates often have a regenerative battery charging while braking which is a great idea. but it also cannot handle charging while already full. So if you go down a slope while the board is full,…

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

#145
post #132

Even though I don't fly over people, I retrofitted a parachute onto my DJI drone just in case. It automatically deploys if the drone loses power or control. It doesn't impact flight characteristics or battery life by much. I feel like a basic safety like this would be a prudent and more effective measure for overhead flights than self-transmitting "license plates" (which I agree are at least better than the silly int…

How do you keep the propellers from cutting people up? Does the parachute also tangle up the prop?

They aren’t sharp. Doesn’t seem like a realistic concern tbh.

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

#146
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not OP but you could probably hook the parachute to constantly NOT be deployed, like a deadman's switch, so that if you lose power it just deploys automatically.

So... when you unplug the battery to replace it, you're greeted by a popping parachute?

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

#147

This is odd: night would be the time when I would think people don't want to hear "whirrrrrrr...' of drones flying over their houses.

I've never heard a drone even close to as loud as my neighbor's motorcycle but it's legal to drive that any time. I have a small DJI Mini 2 drone and it's pretty much impossible to hear over the street noise in my neighborhood if it's more than about 50 feet up in the air.

Motorcycles are certainly worse than drones in terms of noise pollution! I've never had a drone audible from 2 streets over with my double glazed windows shut, but I hear motorcycles daily (and nightly).

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

#148
post #132

Even though I don't fly over people, I retrofitted a parachute onto my DJI drone just in case. It automatically deploys if the drone loses power or control. It doesn't impact flight characteristics or battery life by much. I feel like a basic safety like this would be a prudent and more effective measure for overhead flights than self-transmitting "license plates" (which I agree are at least better than the silly int…

How do you keep the propellers from cutting people up? Does the parachute also tangle up the prop?

Most (if not all?), like the SafeAir line from ParaZero [0] physically power off the drone before deployment to eliminate both factors as risks. This also allows them to handle flyaway situations effectively, making them useful even when you're not flying over a crowd.

Really the biggest problem is they aren't cheap, costing more than the drone themselves.

0: https://parazero.com/products/safeair-for-dji-mavic/

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

#149
post #83

Even though I don't fly over people, I retrofitted a parachute onto my DJI drone just in case. It automatically deploys if the drone loses power or control. It doesn't impact flight characteristics or battery life by much. I feel like a basic safety like this would be a prudent and more effective measure for overhead flights than self-transmitting "license plates" (which I agree are at least better than the silly int…

I've never flown a drone, but this sounds like a pretty cool idea! Are you aware of anything like this being a requirement anywhere, or having being proposed by regulators anywhere?

They kind of fall in with the rules published by the FAA here, and previously were more or less a requirement to get a waiver before said rules. The whole worry about flight over people is two-fold:

1. Props still spinning waiting to cut people up in event of flyaways or loss of power from one or more props

2. In the event of total loss of power, what is the total kinetic energy that would be imparted on an individual should the falling drone strike them

Parachute systems effectively deal with both. A proper setup will power off the drone, making sure the props aren't spinning, and lower the rate of descent so minimal kinetic energy will be transferred in the event of a collision with a human being.

The new rules firmly codify what requirements must be met to operate over people safely, and parachutes along with prop guards should easily meet them.

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

#150
post #125
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean there is mass surveillance of basically all communication.

Little different when a drone is hanging out over your 52nd floor penthouse with an HD cam of your most of your apartment and the ability to get closer and see things in your place that you can't even see with your naked eyes. Then I don't even have the option of throwing my phone or alexa in the fireplace. This makes sense to me. Not sure where people are getting lost. This commenter p410n3 is clearly a cynic. Some…

> I just don't like the idea of a flying high def camera in my face that I can't grab and smash against the wall. Because it's literally flying above me out of reach.

I mean, also because laws? When you're out in public folks can record you with the high def cameras on their smartphones today, and you're still not allowed grab them and smash them against the wall without consequences.

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