cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/10398287
Cheap and They Don’t Snitch: Drones Are the New Drug Mules::Drones are on the rise in the drug world with smugglers using them to shift product across borders, into prisons - and soon to a street near you.
This will eventually lead to new regulations saying drones have to save a record of their flight history on the drone itself. I’d bet that within a few more years in the US any drone with a range of more than a mile will have to be registered with the FAA
They already do have to be registered with the FAA, if over 250 grams (most drones except for some FPV and minis).
All drones must be registered, except those that weigh 0.55 pounds or less (less than 250 grams) and are flown under the Exception for Limited Recreational Operations.
The FAA can fine you (with huge fines too, fines that you can’t really fight) if you’re in violation. New drones are also subject to Remote ID. I think many people buying drones off of Amazon have no idea about the requirements, but it’s something that I’ve always been very careful with, especially since I’m near restricted airspace. Don’t mess with the FAA.
And it won’t stop the cartels, since they can easily either circumvent any software that would report the flight history and be able to get drones somewhere that doesn’t report the sale to the US FAA, or just make their own drones “from scratch”. It’s not that hard to build a drone like that, the most work seems to be figuring out what to make it out of (the components you need), how to balance everything, and some software to control it. And I don’t for a second doubt that they have the ability to get all the expertise they need to do all of those things fairly easily.
