Blogs

Good piece from the US National Public Radio on how the hobby community approaches drone safety while regulators deliberate rules. Here's the section I'm quoted in: 

It's counterintuitive, but many in the drone community want more rules.

"I very much want rules," says Chris Anderson, who founded 3D Robotics and DIY Drones. "Why? Because I want clarity. We want to know what the landscape is so that we can respond appropriately." Anderson says such clarity could start with a few definitions — like what a recreational drone really is.

Right now, he says, all drones are lumped into the same category, from the little foam onesavailable at Wal-Mart to the 50-pound behemoths some people could choose to convert into flying weapons.

In the absence of official rules, people have started coming up with their own.

"There have been some recent unsafe instances that don't represent our community, but in a sense they do," said Timothy Reuter, founder of the DC Area Drone User Group, addressing members at a meeting to discuss safety guidelines.

"In the public mind ... anyone who operates a drone in an unsafe manner is tarnishing the reputation of the entire community," he wrote in an email later.

Reuter says the need for establishing these safety guidelines is quickly approaching.

"We don't want regulations to come down on us like a ton of bricks," he told the group. "Because if we don't come up with our own safety guidelines, then other people who don't understand the technology will." He likens public anxiety about personal drones to that in the 1800s about balloons, and more recently about 3-D printing.