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> E.g. the agricultural sector in the US has enormous power on this front. They already use lots of drones as well as e.g. helicopters to dry cherry trees, crop
by kozikow 8y ago
> E.g. the agricultural sector in the US has enormous power on this front. They already use lots of drones as well as e.g. helicopters to dry cherry trees, crop dusting planes, etc.
There is a bit of a chicken and egg problem here. As long as there is a restriction of a single drone per pilot, using airplanes and helicopters tends to be cheaper for most use cases.
- jillesvangurp 8y agoOnly under a closed world assumption. If e.g. Mexican and Canadian farmers start seeing real cost reductions by using drone technology there will be some very real market demand to sort out any legal obstacles for doing the same in the US. Basically this article is about the Swiss being a bit more pragmatic here. It's probably not the only part of the world where this is the case. I imagine the Chinese are very eager to get a head start in this market as well. So, the only effect of this legislation will be that likely successful companies in this space may not necessarily end up being US based companies and that the US will end up being late to the game. That in itself might be enough incentive for this to get fixed sooner than later. In the same way, self driving cars are being invested in despite legal obstacles that currently make operating them illegal in most places.