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DJI Innovations, the leading manufacturer of drones, launched a beta version of its new "geofencing" system that should keep its drones from flying into restricted airspace. The new feature is called Geospatial Environment Online (GEO), and it will let users know about areas where drone flight is restricted, either due to regulations or because of safety issues.
GEO will stop DJI drones from taking off in restricted areas like airports, Washington D.C., and temporarily restricted areas such as places near forest fires or big stadium events. Sensitive areas around prisons and power plants will be off limits in the system as well.
DJI owners can temporarily opt out of GEO and unlock some of the flight restrictions, but there's a catch. They must have verified accounts with the company, with a credit card, debit card, or cellphone number on file. Users cannot turn off all the flight restrictions though; places like Washington D.C. will remain completely off limits.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Justin Case on Saturday January 02 2016, @07:11PM
I don't want any drones flying within 3 miles of me, wherever I might be at the time. Who do I contact to get added to the exclusion zone?
Also, shouldn't we do like guns and not allow drones within $DISTANCE of a school, church, stadium, supermarket, or any other public gathering place, until they're effectively forbidden everywhere except for tiny "freedom zones" way out in the middle of nowhere?
Oh but wait that's a black list -- never works for security. Maybe we need a white list instead. Places where person X has permission to fly, granted by owner of property Y.
But no, freedom from drone harassment will become yet another privilege for the elite, and fuck the rest of us. Bitch too loud and you'll be on a no-fly list all right, just not the one about drones.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday January 02 2016, @08:19PM
Three miles? Boy, that's some paranoia you have there.
I was going to do an internet search to figure out how much C4 Explosive it would take to knock down church or school but thought better of it, and instead I suggest that any drone capable of lifting the weight of what ever amount of what ever commonly available explosive would be sufficient to do so, should require registration and regulation and geo-fencing, and the rest of them can do as they please.
If you're worried about what people can see from a drone, that's a whole different problem, for which there isn't a real solution, other than knocking enough of them out of the sky with your own drone such that the perpetrators wanting to watch you wife sunbathing nude in the back yard will run out of money or discover internet porn and leave you alone.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Justin Case on Sunday January 03 2016, @02:46AM
Three miles? Boy, that's some paranoia you have there.
Well I thought if the President deserves a whole city I could at least get a moderate exclusion zone.
Anyway I said "I don't want" not "I'm afraid of drones carrying bombs". I think perhaps the paranoia originated elsewhere.
Am I not allowed to like and dislike various things?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 03 2016, @03:15AM
So, how do you plan to enforce these regulations without taking control away from the user? If it doesn't respect the users' freedoms, then it's worthless junk.
Furthermore, regulating a drone is just insane. I shouldn't have to beg the government before I'm allowed to do something trivial like have a drone. That's the *real* paranoia: A terrorist is hiding behind every corner.