My dad was a licensed pilot (IFR with several other certifications, but small plane). My understanding of how the FAA handles regulations is that they tend to be onerous. I skimmed the doc, but going by that understanding, I'm not at all surprised that they'd propose a regulation that would effectively eliminate entire products because they'd be impossible to build in a compliant manner.
The law of unintended consequences lands pretty hard on government regulations -- mini-motorcycles come to mind; they don't fall into a category that can be made legal to use anywhere other than private property. And while there are certainly many products where "that's just fine", when things fall into that category, it makes it impossible/extremely expensive to get any form of insurance which could also be required in order to operate the thing in the first place[0].
If what you've written is true, without caveats, it'll be stifling to the market if it is has any chance of being enforced at all. A good chunk of the drone market is hobbyist and a lot of hobbyists have more hobbies than they have time. Unless they also have a regulatory compliance hobby to go along with it, a lot of them are likely to just give up on the whole thing.
Of course, this benefits makers of higher-priced drones meant for commercial markets. Some of the inexpensive drones are capable enough for professionals (or can be modded to be made capable enough) -- that's eating into sales of the $1000 -- probably far better -- drones. I'm not saying DJI or some of the larger drone makers are trying to game the system to eliminate smaller competitors, but it wouldn't really surprise me. The things they're expecting drone manufacturers to implement would require lower-priced drones to raise their prices to offset the cost. The more expensive drones might be able to cheapen-up elsewhere to offset, or they'll similarly pass that on to the consumer since bumping the price of a $1000 drone to $1050 would barely be noticed vs. a $150 drone costing $200 after being made compliant[1].
[0] Minibikes are a bad example, but the idea is that people will be less willing to buy/use a product (that requires skill to operate safely) if they cannot insure against a lawsuit when it hurts someone/causes some other form of harm that a lawyer can profitably latch onto.
[1] Hypothetical prices, obviously -- I don't understand everything that will be required nor who would be required to comply. I.e. If you can't sell non-compliant models, it'll bump up the price. If you can, it'll bump up the cost of ownership for those who aren't interested in explaining themselves to a judge/officer.
> I skimmed the doc, but going by that understanding, I'm not at all surprised that they'd propose a regulation that would effectively eliminate entire products because they'd be impossible to build in a compliant manner.
Well, given that we continue to have fire control flights grounded because of idiots flying drones, the FAA is going to keep ratcheting up the regulations until that stops.
So, either people can start getting on board with some tracking and actually provide some useful feedback and advice, or the FAA is eventually just going to ban all drones and make it a major felony to possess one.
The law of unintended consequences lands pretty hard on government regulations -- mini-motorcycles come to mind; they don't fall into a category that can be made legal to use anywhere other than private property. And while there are certainly many products where "that's just fine", when things fall into that category, it makes it impossible/extremely expensive to get any form of insurance which could also be required in order to operate the thing in the first place[0].
If what you've written is true, without caveats, it'll be stifling to the market if it is has any chance of being enforced at all. A good chunk of the drone market is hobbyist and a lot of hobbyists have more hobbies than they have time. Unless they also have a regulatory compliance hobby to go along with it, a lot of them are likely to just give up on the whole thing.
Of course, this benefits makers of higher-priced drones meant for commercial markets. Some of the inexpensive drones are capable enough for professionals (or can be modded to be made capable enough) -- that's eating into sales of the $1000 -- probably far better -- drones. I'm not saying DJI or some of the larger drone makers are trying to game the system to eliminate smaller competitors, but it wouldn't really surprise me. The things they're expecting drone manufacturers to implement would require lower-priced drones to raise their prices to offset the cost. The more expensive drones might be able to cheapen-up elsewhere to offset, or they'll similarly pass that on to the consumer since bumping the price of a $1000 drone to $1050 would barely be noticed vs. a $150 drone costing $200 after being made compliant[1].
[0] Minibikes are a bad example, but the idea is that people will be less willing to buy/use a product (that requires skill to operate safely) if they cannot insure against a lawsuit when it hurts someone/causes some other form of harm that a lawyer can profitably latch onto.
[1] Hypothetical prices, obviously -- I don't understand everything that will be required nor who would be required to comply. I.e. If you can't sell non-compliant models, it'll bump up the price. If you can, it'll bump up the cost of ownership for those who aren't interested in explaining themselves to a judge/officer.