3 ms·

A rotor blade can potentially cut or blind people.

bigiain 11y ago
Sure, but to be fair - a bicycle, a skateboard, or a baseball are also all quite capable of inflicting serious injuries. We as a society seem to be perfectly happy to assume the risks of children on bicycles - and allow then to use them in fairly uncontrolled fashions in pubic places - and that all works out fine. We handle motorcycles differently - and at least where I am are working out the sensible restrictions for "in between" categories - bicycles with more or less powerful electric or gas motors. I find the "drone hysteria" annoying - in that it's manufacturing unreasonable "generalised risks" (like "cutting or blinding people") - without acknowledging the difference between a Clarkson CX10, a Parrot AR Drone, a 250 class quad, and a machine capable of lifting several pounds or more of payload. It's almost like trying to apply the same risks and restrictions on 18wheeler trucks, cars, and matchbox toys.
- ghaff 11y ago
  I don't really disagree with you but there are probably certain activities that we can generalize to a pretty wide of drones as being unsafe such as flying over a crowd of people. Just as we tend to have (albeit often informal and not always followed) rules around bicycles, skateboard, and baseballs. Those are all probably fine in most empty parking lots. Probably less so on a crowded city sidewalk.
  - bigiain 11y ago
    The thing is - I suspect there are three or so orders of magnitude more of this style of quadcopter: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ybtq960nzf8dxl3/Clarkson%20CX10X.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/ybtq960nzf8dxl3/Clarkson%20CX10X.j... Than the sort that'd have any real risk of knocking you out of they fell on you. I fly this over the heads of my friends/family/colleagues all the time. I probably wouldn't fly one around a newborn, but I've had it batted out of the air by a 2 year old in full view of his laughing mother. I've got some bigger-but-still-small "250" size quads too - all up ready-to-fly weights of around 300g. I'm more careful with those - but I've intentionally flown them into myself with no more protection than a tshirt - and it kinda hurts, but doesn't "injure" me (again, I suspect the mother of the aforementioned 2 year old would think differently if I unexpectedly hit them with one of these in the local park, but it's still in the frisbee or football kind of injury risk - not a "this'll definitely need an ambulance" category. And I at least tell myself I'm _much_ more in control of this than a football or frisbee in flight, and I _really_ don't want to hit anybody).

Sure, but to be fair - a bicycle, a skateboard, or a baseball are also all quite capable of inflicting serious injuries. We as a society seem to be perfectly happy to assume the risks of children on bicycles - and allow then to use them in fairly uncontrolled fashions in pubic places - and that all works out fine. We handle motorcycles differently - and at least where I am are working out the sensible restrictions for "in between" categories - bicycles with more or less powerful electric or gas motors. I find the "drone hysteria" annoying - in that it's manufacturing unreasonable "generalised risks" (like "cutting or blinding people") - without acknowledging the difference between a Clarkson CX10, a Parrot AR Drone, a 250 class quad, and a machine capable of lifting several pounds or more of payload. It's almost like trying to apply the same risks and restrictions on 18wheeler trucks, cars, and matchbox toys.

ghaff 11y ago
I don't really disagree with you but there are probably certain activities that we can generalize to a pretty wide of drones as being unsafe such as flying over a crowd of people. Just as we tend to have (albeit often informal and not always followed) rules around bicycles, skateboard, and baseballs. Those are all probably fine in most empty parking lots. Probably less so on a crowded city sidewalk.
- bigiain 11y ago
  The thing is - I suspect there are three or so orders of magnitude more of this style of quadcopter: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ybtq960nzf8dxl3/Clarkson%20CX10X.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/ybtq960nzf8dxl3/Clarkson%20CX10X.j... Than the sort that'd have any real risk of knocking you out of they fell on you. I fly this over the heads of my friends/family/colleagues all the time. I probably wouldn't fly one around a newborn, but I've had it batted out of the air by a 2 year old in full view of his laughing mother. I've got some bigger-but-still-small "250" size quads too - all up ready-to-fly weights of around 300g. I'm more careful with those - but I've intentionally flown them into myself with no more protection than a tshirt - and it kinda hurts, but doesn't "injure" me (again, I suspect the mother of the aforementioned 2 year old would think differently if I unexpectedly hit them with one of these in the local park, but it's still in the frisbee or football kind of injury risk - not a "this'll definitely need an ambulance" category. And I at least tell myself I'm _much_ more in control of this than a football or frisbee in flight, and I _really_ don't want to hit anybody).