3 easy steps to counteracting “drone madness”
Recently, “drone madness” has reached a fever pitch with the Gatwick Airport drone fiasco of late 2018. But underneath the irrational outrage and wild media speculation there lies a need for a practical and effective approach to ensuring commercial drone operations thrive in 2019 & beyond.
Have you ever heard of “Reefer Madness”?
If not, here’s a little exert from Wikipedia:
Reefer Madness is a 1936 American propaganda film revolving around the melodramatic events that ensue when high school students are lured by pushers to try marijuana — from a hit and run accident, to manslaughter, suicide, attempted rape, hallucinations, and descent into madness due to marijuana addiction.
….
Originally financed by a church group under the title Tell Your Children, the film was intended to be shown to parents as a morality tale attempting to teach them about the dangers of cannabis use.[5] However, soon after the film was shot, it was purchased by producer Dwain Esper, who re-cut the film for distribution on the exploitation film circuit beginning in 1938–1939 through the 1940s and 1950s.[5]
Now you might be thinking, great story, but what’s the point of all this? Well, if you substitute the word “reefer” for “drone”, then you get what happened in the throws of the Gatwick Airport drone incident. Without going into detail about the incident itself because there’s plenty of online articles & posts written about it already, I think one article sums things up perfectly about the situation.
A few weeks later, there was a similar “incident” that caused England’s largest airport to shut down for a few hours. And again, no conclusive evidence there was actually a drone involved, but police claim to have at least seen a drone this time. No video evidence of course.
Now, assuming you buy into the fact that we do live in a time of “drone madness”, what can one do? Well here are 3 things that can effectively mitigate against the spread of the disease.
1) Fight with facts
Non-military drones are not new. And if you compare them with any other causes of death, you’ll find it’s a hard comparison to make; mostly because non-military drones have been responsible for exactly zero deaths in all the developed countries of the world. There have been some head injuries and accidents, but in terms of the likelihood a drone is going to send you on a one-way ticket to the underworld, you’re more likely to get fatally bitten by a spider. And that’s truly frightening.
So if drones are not killing us…like at all, then how can we explain all the hysteria? Again, just look at Reefer Madness. Or read up on theories about the biological basis for human irrationality (warning: it goes deep).
One should admit that while the facts don’t lie, that doesn’t mean there are no actual threats. The President of Venezuela was targeted in a widely publicized, unsuccessful drone assassination attempt. But let me remind you, far more American politicians have died at the end of a bullet. And yes, if you’re a drone hobbyist or commercial remote pilot, you can dream of a day when “the right to fly drones” is added as an amendment to the US Constitution. But you might be asleep for a long, long time.
The truth is, fear of the unknown is a powerful human driving force. But so is the principle of “out of sight, out of mind”. Which leads me to the topic of drones being used as surveillance devices.
Below are 6 items or organizations that either have been proven to or widely recognized as being spying devices that capture data about you with astonishing efficiency; typically in the background, without your explicit consent or direct knowledge.
- Your phone
- Social networks
- Smart home devices
- Your ISP
- Your government
- Credit agencies
The numbers don’t lie. Neither do the terms of services. I urge anyone to try to find a tenth of the stories about corroborated spying situations with drones than from the items I listed above. And is it even spying when you actually give the data away willingly?
Mandatory Note: I’m not promoting the fact that drones are the solution to all the worlds’ problems. There are definitely situations where drones are the wrong tool for the job. It’s important the humans responsible for operating the drones keep the extent of their usefulness and capabilities in mind. But the hysteria is completely unwarranted.
2) Promote #dronesforgood (i.e. positive use-cases)
If more journalists (or bloggers) simply took the time to investigate the positive use-cases of drones, there might be more encouraging stories about them in the news or shared on social media.
Have you heard that drones helped expedite much-needed insurance payouts immediately after the largest wildfire in California history?
Or more generally, that they’re being used more by firefighters to help with situation awareness and rescue response.
For the pure-blood capitalists in the room, did you know drones can increase the speed at which audit work is being done for stockpile measurements by 85%?
Or more generally, that there are plenty of positive ROI case-studies of drones being used to save companies time, effort and money.
Once you divert people’s attention away from the fear-based speculation, it becomes significantly easier to open their eyes to the fact that drones are doing a lot more good than harm. At least when referring to the commercial and non-military use-cases.
So follow and share #dronesforgood posts. Tell your family and friends too. And if you’re a journalist, maybe consider reporting on the upcoming G3 Robotics “Drones for Good” STEM competition instead of pandering to the general public’s base “fear of the unknown” instinct. It’s the least you can do.
3) Follow the rules when you fly (or at least be aware there are rules)
Before I became a Certified Remote Pilot, I was only vaguely aware there was such a thing as “controlled airspace”. And that was the extent of my aeronautical knowledge. So I’ll admit that this last item might be more akin to wishful thinking. But awareness is usually an important initial step to realizing meaningful changes in perception.
Even though it’s still quite early in global s/UAS adoption, I think it’s important the general public at least be aware that there are actual rules and regulations that govern the airspace. It’s not expected that all citizens know the “rules of the sky”, but most people without cars still know there’s a speed limit on the roads.
Now, where and when a drone has the right to be operated is a more murky story. And making the situation even more opaque is the fact that for every rule/restriction, the FAA can issue a waiver or authorization for a specific use-case. But good work is being done by private companies to help alleviate this uncertainty about what a particular drone’s intent might be.
So until remote ID or some other form of immediate identification system is developed, widely implemented and enforced, the Wild West and self-policing days of drone flying will continue. Enforcement officials, public service members and the public will have to judge each drone individually. The best remote pilots can do is prioritize safety to avoid a real drone catastrophe. And the best the public can do is being aware that maybe that drone they see hovering nearby is actually someone who is just doing their job…
…unless they’re chasing a guy with a serious symbiote problem through the streets, then probably best to call the police and stay back.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Airzus, Inc. or any of its partners or affiliates. Examples of analysis or suggestions included within this article are only examples. They should not be relied on solely in real-world decision-making as they are based only on very limited and narrow source information. Assumptions made within the analysis are not reflective of the position of Airzus, Inc. or any of its partners or affiliates. This post does not intentionally or unintentionally contain any legal or strict professional advice.
