3 ms·

Somehow I have a feeling commercial aircraft, military aircraft, and rocket launches are already registered with the US government. Just a feeling.

• saulrh 11y ago
  Oh, certainly. I just also want them registered and generally recognised as being "drones". I get really annoyed at people who scream about "future killer drones changing warfare" and "how can they possibly be safe" while they're sitting on an airliner that's been under computer guidance since it finished taxiing and when the US military has been using guided missiles since the 50s.
  • threeseed 11y ago
    And I get annoyed by people who simply don't "get it". Nobody cares about the definition of a drone. It is irrelevant whether it is manned/unmanned, large/small, heavy/light etc. They care that they are used safely and don't put innocent people at risk. Aircraft pilots and government officials go through rigorous training to ensure that anything they do is safe. A 15 year old kid buying one off the internet does not. Hence the need for regulations.
  • rcthompson 11y ago
    An aircraft flying under autopilot with a human pilot present who is monitoring the situation and can respond to ATC instructions and take manual control if necessary is not remotely similar to a UAV from a practical perspective, despite the superficial similarity of both being flown by a computer.
    • saulrh 11y ago
      I haven't seen a lot of "drones" that weren't being teleoperated at the level of aerodynamic controls. The ones that aren't ([1] is a good example) fly low enough that they wouldn't be visible to ATC in the first place [2]. And the humans may not be quite as in-control as you think; I can't find it, but there was a link off Reddit last week that said that pilots in commercial airliners are so infrequently in control of the airplane that they're starting to forget how to fly their planes. [1]: https://www.airdog.com/ https://www.airdog.com/ [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar_horizon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar_horizon
    • Evolved 11y ago
      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.)
      • dronehire 11y ago
        > 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, completely autonomously.
        • TeMPOraL 11y ago
          As opposed to military killer-drones. Which goes back to upthread concerns. Military drones are remote-operated, not autonomous.
        • Evolved 11y ago
          I don't think we agree on what "autonomous" means. Preprogramming a flight path to follow doesn't meet the definition of autonomous nor does autopilot following waypoints. Autonomous, at least to me, means the drone takes off, searches out a sight ("drone, fine me a bridge and take pictures of it") and then makes the decision to fly to it and perform some kind of action whether it be photographic/videographic/some kind of monitoring (commercial drones) or a kinetic action (military drones). Basically, when drones get AI then I'd personally consider them to be autonomous. YMMV