The future of drone technology
The public opinion of this technology is often very negative. The field of drones has a stigma surrounding it and one of the main reasons for this is the fear of the unknown. The general public isn’t very well educated on the benefits of drone technology and so there is great worry as to what the purpose of drones is and who is accountable for their actions, as there is no visible pilot. Furthermore, drones get bad press because they are so accessible; they’re powerful, affordable and far beyond what’s previously been used. 7 Because of this, it takes very few malicious uses of the technology for it to get a bad name. Perhaps the most reported on use of drones in recent times, was the disruption caused to London Gatwick airport in December 2018. Following reports of drone sightings close to runways, hundreds of flights were cancelled, affecting approximately 140,000 passengers; it was the biggest disruption to aviation travel since ash from an Icelandic volcano shut the airport down in 2010. 8 The airport had no other choice but to cancel this huge amount of flights and delay even more because of the immense danger drones pose to planes. The University of Dayton Research Institute has demonstrated exactly this. In a test designed to imitate a mid-air collision at 238 miles per hour with a hobby drone, it was shown that the drone didn’t shatter upon impact, rather it tore the leading edge of the wing right open, boring its way into the structure. 9 The events in London in December 2018 were incredibly revealing and exposed a massive weakness in national security; if a hobby drone can cause so much fear and disruption and so little can be done to stop it, the question of what a more advanced drone is capable of is risen. Indeed, the chief operating officer at Gatwick airport Chris Woodroofe noted that ‘ drones are a UK aviation issue, or even an international aviation issue ’ when describing how the military had unsuccessfully attempted to bring the drone down for 24 hours. 10 In the UK at least, this single event gave drones a very negative reputation. More generally though, with this large event aside, drones come with an expected issue of privacy. UAVs present unique privacy challenges thanks to the way information is collected; the ability to gather data from previously impossible vantage points distinguishes UAV use from video surveillance cameras and other such technology. Drone use raises a broad range of issues in the ‘ collection, retention, use, disclosure, and eventual safe destruction of personal information ’ . 11 The United States’ view on the matter has undergone great change since 1986, when the Supreme Court ruled that the use of a private plane by the police to detect hidden marijuana plants in backyards did not constitute a search since observations were made from ‘ public navigable airspace ’ . 12 However, in 2001, it was decided that the use of thermal imaging constituted a search and thus required a warrant. This change is representative of the growing concerns regarding drone technology; laws and regulations are getting ever tighter in a field in which the technology keeps developing.
Although for many it may seem that drone technology is already getting out of hand, we are just beginning to harness its true capabilities through novel applications. Drones lie right at the heart of
7 https://www.droneflyers.com/why-do-drones-get-such-bad-press/. 8 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatwick_Airport_drone_incident. 9 https://udayton.edu/momentum/stories/udri-drone-test.php. 10 https://www.dpa-international.com/topic/gatwick-works-contingency-plans-drone-sightings-continue- urn%3Anewsml%3Adpa.com%3A20090101%3A181221-99-306226. 11 Privacy and Drones: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles – Ann Cavoukian Ph.D. Information & Privacy Commissioner Ontario, Canada - https://www.ipc.on.ca/wp-content/uploads/resources/pbd-drones.pdf.
12 California v. Ciraolo 476 U.S. 207 (1986). Supreme Court - https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/476/207/.
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