Can the Federal Aviation Administration beat out the blitz of drones sold this holiday season by installing several strict rules?
Well, it seems like it's going to try. The New York Times is reporting that the FAA outlined proposed drone regulations in a report released Monday, with the aim that they're approved ahead of an influx of new drone owners expected this holiday season.
With the Consumer Technology Association estimating that 400,000 drones will be sold this holiday season, such proposed regulations would see to it that every one of those unmanned aircraft would have to be registered with the federal government with the machine's information stored in a national database, according to the Times.
The process will mark each drone with a registration number, while the Times reports that owners will have the option of submitting their names, addresses, email addresses and phone numbers for the federal database as well.
The newspaper is also reporting that the FAA created a special drone task force within its agency to help make these proposed regulations.
Despite this appearing as a crackdown on drones, the FAA's task force seemingly wants the public to know that it compromised with tech companies to not have the rules be as strict as they might appear.
"We tried to write it in as generic a flavor as possible," said head of Google X's drone project, Dave Vos, to the Times.
He added that, with the "consensus we reached, everyone is quite happy here."
More than anything, a set of proposed drone regulations seeks to hold every owner of an unmanned aircraft accountable for their machine, while providing traceable links between the drones and their owners.
This is deemed necessary due to the rash of drone crashes and even the machines hovering in places, for reasons unknown, that they shouldn't be. Earlier this month, a drone crashed into Seattle's Great Wheel, knocking a woman unconscious during a parade. In September, a New York City teacher was arrested after a drone crashed into the stands at the U.S. Open. Earlier this year, a man was detained for flying a drone outside the White House.
Those are just a few of the many incidents that triggered the FAA to push forward aggressively with a set of proposed regulations.
Let's see if they indeed take effect before the holidays for new drone owners.
