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Idea of civilians using drone aircraft may soon fly with FAA

Hatuey said:
Yes and it'll be a long time before they make it into your home or your earlobe. Chill son. Slippery slopes aren't your forte.
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It will not be a long time before they have these things everywhere. The government should not be allowed at all to spy on the people.

General Atomics MQ-1 Predator - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Price of a drone: 4-10 million + repairs, operator salaries, mechanics, etc.

www.robinsonheli.com/price_lists_eocs/r44_1_pricelist.pdf

Price of a helicopter: 300-600K + pilot, repairs, mechanics, etc.

It seems as if the cost of purchasing/operating just 1 drone is far higher than that of 1 police helicopter. So "having a ****load of these things" flying around would be unthinkable for any police department unless they plan on downsizing man power considerably.
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The drones the military use are large, armed,fly long distances and meant to be controlled from thousands of miles away. Plus the fact the military is the only customer of drones that means these currently are expensive. A civilian law enforcement application means that these things do not need to be flown from thousands of miles away. They do not need to be large. Nor do they need to fly for thousands of miles. Which means they can be made cheaper for civilian applications and civilian law enforcement use. Its like the difference between a factory grade table saw that may cost thousands of dollars made for a cabinet making company of dollars and a cheap 100 dollar or less table saw made by Skil or Ryobi for the hobbyist carpenter. These drones will become cheaper,smaller,possibly automated and therefore more numerous.
 
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jamesrage said:
It will not be a long time before they have these things everywhere. The government should not be allowed at all to spy on the people.



The drones the military use are large, armed,fly long distances and meant to be controlled from thousands of miles away Plus the fact the military is the only customer of drones that means these currently are expensive. A civilian law enforcement application means that these things do not need to be flown from thousands of miles away. They do not need to be large. Nor do they need to fly for thousands of miles. Which means they can be made cheaper for civilian applications and civilian law enforcement use. Its like the difference between a factory grade table saw that may cost thousands of dollars made for a cabinet making company of dollars and a cheap 100 dollar or less table saw made by Skil or Ryobi for the hobbyist carpenter. These drones will become cheaper,smaller,possibly automated and therefore more numerous.
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Not disagreeing here, but there are already cheaper, smaller UAS's out there that the military uses. Hatuey's comparison is specious. Law enforcement couldn't even begin to own a predator class UAS. The Marines have backpack sized UAS's and there are very tiny ones in the works that are powered remotely by microwave. These small one could pose a privacy issue since they could potentially fly at street level undetected. So I modify my previous statement about worrying more about the mission packages to account for this small size class. However, hopefully we would be protected by the 4th Amendment for unreasonable searches if the time came.
 
American said:
Not disagreeing here, but there are already cheaper, smaller UAS's out there that the military uses. Hatuey's comparison is specious. Law enforcement couldn't even begin to own a predator class UAS. The Marines have backpack sized UAS's and there are very tiny ones in the works that are powered remotely by microwave. These small one could pose a privacy issue since they could potentially fly at street level undetected. So I modify my previous statement about worrying more about the mission packages to account for this small size class. However, hopefully we would be protected by the 4th Amendment for unreasonable searches if the time came.
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A lot of people think the 4th amendment only applies if you are inside your home with the windows shut, just look at any thread about the virtual strip searches and invasive pat downs at airports.
 
Comming to an OWS protest near you:



/pure playful sarcasm

I could see civilean drones being very good at delivering important parcels at a high price. Would need a damn wide network for it all though.

There would need to be safeguards that prevent the drones from flying over homes though (privacy and accident prevention).

And the second you weaponize them or make them explode it would be crossing the line.

I could imagine drug dealers also tapping into submarine or flying drones to decrease their chances of getting caught in a scene. Plug in the destination with the recieving person having the locater.

I imagine flying drones would make border patrol much more efficient.

Its almost a garentee that this technology will be abused but, then again everything and anything can be abused.
 
Terrible idea. Drones cannot see and avoid traffic like a human pilot.
 
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