It must be a slow news week, because I am not the only one slightly obsessed with Amazon’s announcement on 60 Minutes that it is developing delivery drones. Drones will soon be dropping off your book, DVD, or new shoes. I don’t know if this is a veiled attempt to pump up Amazon’s stock price, but I am looking forward to the delivery drones. I figure we are only one step removed from carpool drones, so I won’t have to drive my kids around for hours every day. That thing could totally lift my kids up and drop them on the soccer field, right?
The idea (Amazon’s idea, not my carpool idea) presents all sorts of strange problems. Will the drones run into birds? Land on your head? Crash into airplanes? Interfere with our cell reception? Well, this is a law blog, so I will focus on the legal issues. Actually, this article nicely summarizes the state of law on drones. Basically, the law says very little. The Federal Aviation Authority is probably already busy drafting new regulations, so it won’t be long before drones are highly regulated. Administrative law in action.
6 Comments
Mark posted on December 12, 2013 at 12:28 am
I can see the lawsuits coming when some of these drones start to crash in to things on the ground such as cars, people, and making property damage. These things are computer flown using GPS sensing, and pre-programmed routing.
There is the question about a sensor failing, loss if GPS signal, on board system failure of some type, or a gust of wind blowing the drone in to something, or a collision with something else in the air whatever it can be. There are many scenarios that can occur to cause a mishap with such a device being used over civilian populations, and with many buildings and obstructions on the ground.
I can see one of these drones going defective and crashing through a window, or in to someone causing severe injury or even death!
Then there is the issue if the drone makes it to the persons door front, what does it do if the person is not home to pick up his delivery? Does the drone dump the package right on the spot outside where anyone can pick it up and have a free gift, or a gust of wind can blow it to the side? What if the person lives in an apartment complex?
GPS systems at best are normally not better than about 15 to 20 feet accurate. To have greater accuracy a calibrated ground base system is normally used. These services are usually at airports, seaports, or temporarily installed in areas where large heavy construction projects will be done. To use the added ground based precision systems; specific GPS type devices are required, which are fairly expensive and elaborate.
Leyla Rizkallah Issa posted on January 7, 2014 at 4:18 pm
I agree with Mark on all his points above and I believe it is also fair to assume these drones could be manipulated for terrorist attacks and tracking them would be very hard, considering the large number of deliveries Amazon carries every day. In addition, the question would be to figure out how these drones are controlled. Is the destination programmed before they deliver? or are they controlled instantaneously by an Amazon employee? If they are pre-programmed, they would have to be very sophisticated to avoid air collision when en route to destination and to avoid being intercepted by outsiders and sent to a different destination. This leads me to think that if Amazon can meet all the technological requirements for security, safety and efficiency,these drones will be very costly and the cost will be transferred to the customer who will have to pay a high delivery charge. Do the benefits of these drones outweigh the associated costs?
Oneyoung Choi posted on January 10, 2014 at 11:56 pm
The idea of using drones to deliver goods is original, but it is too dangerous to allow unmanned air crafts. Like the article says, it could be a threat to the public. Even if the drones are allowed, this could bring a huge dispute.
Becca Solomont posted on January 12, 2014 at 5:32 pm
I for one, cannot wait to see what 2015 will bring when the FAA opens up the skies to commercial drone use. With over 24,000 Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) delivered worldwide (to date, used extensively by military forces), there are actually more UAS/Drone flight hours and pilots trained to fly them than manned equivalents. Despite multiple potential uses in the National Airspace (ie. Amazon delivery) it’s actually predicted that UAS in the National Airspace system will be used mainly for precision agriculture and public safety (and will comprise 90% of the known potential market). The potential in these two markets is massive.
All this said, with great power comes great responsibility. While the idea of looking out your window and seeing real life Jetson planes is a little frightening, drones are already far more common than a lot of people may think. Part of the issue though is awareness – we only hear stories of privacy problems, or armed attacks. In order for this technology to become properly ingratiated into society, Amazon should look to address this.
From a legal standpoint, I think the way the government and companies look to regulate drone usage will be key. Similar to international business deals, how will companies handle who regulates what airspace? I wonder if there needs to be some sort of pseudo-CISG created where the UN needs to develop their own set of standards.
Again, I think this is going to be a pretty incredible technology, but also one that needs to be cautiously shared with the public. I think Amazon can do it, but there may need to be greater infrastructure in place in order for them to thrive with delivery work.
Oren Sheach posted on January 12, 2014 at 5:53 pm
Even though all the near future descriptions when drones will be flying over our heads might sound quite Dystopian , I still believe that the regulations will allow only law enforcement, public safety agencies, agricultural and scientific uses.
So drones in our urban area, I find it really hard to believe it is that easy to implement. and as you’ve mentioned in your post about the Amazon drones, the technical issues are not easy to resolve.
Aeriel Emig posted on January 12, 2014 at 6:04 pm
The law blog mostly speaks about the legality of FAA regulations. But on a slightly different note, what about the effect drones would have on independent government agency USPS?
The Postal Service is already deteriorating financially – losing $5 billion in 2013, borrowing $12 billion from the U.S. Treasury, and delivering more junk mail than first-class envelopes. With talk of USPS already being doomed to fail, what would happen to this government institution if drones come to play? In a decade where we can’t “function” without constant wireless access, who can argue 30 minute delivery time? It seems possible that drones would begin replacing all types of package and letter deliveries.
USPS is “legally obligated to serve all Americans, regardless of geography, at a uniform price and quality.” Do you know if these same regulations exist for FedEx and UPS? In our (perhaps unavoidable) Jetson-style future, will the USPS be legally required to remain in business (even if losing money or remaining unprofitable) just to deliver to the few citizens who might not have online access to sign up for drone delivery service?