It’s so weird how a lot of society went from “WOAH, government can’t use these things to track me, I have a right to privacy!” to “WOAH, you try not to be tracked by every single company on the planet and 16 major governments? What are you some kinda criminal?”

I can tell you from experience you can use a garage worth of basic tools to make a gun, but not one that will be “print, assemble, fire” without extra parts.

I’d say about 4/10 times I go flying my 240g drone in the local park someone comes over to tell me I’m breaking the law. Weirdly they can never name a specific one, and it’s always just “the law says you cant use that here”. Never had cops called yet. Mostly people want to ask me how much it was and how I like it. A few have asked if I’ve tried dropping “something the size of a baseball” from it.

I have a buddy who works in a bank, says a ton of ag loans these days are for drones and renewable energy equipment. Even the owner of the field I live next to has one. I think it lives in his shed, it has 8 rotors. Looks like it could lift a skinny short person. I have exactly 0 concerns they will use it to spy on me or drop explosives on my house.

I’d love to have a drone with thermal/night vision. We get a lot of animals around here and I’d like to be able to see them (and figure out what they all are) without spooking them.