On Friday, a remote controlled drone landed on the White House lawn at 1:30 a.m.
The incident naturally sent Secret Service agents into a rampage and illustrated, once again, the ability of drones to maneuver in ways that tradition aircraft cannot. Though drone technology holds immense potential to disrupt a number of orthodox industries, the still-nascent technology could face a wall of impending regulation that would inhibit the private sphere from innovating in the space.
Importantly, the reported “accident” made by a D.C. resident followed just one week after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) missed a deadline set by Congress to finalize rules related to the legalization of commercial drone use. Recently, the FAA launched a federally funded research agreement to identity UAVs near airports.
The flux between quickly advancing technology and pending regulatory action has created a sort of legislative purgatory for drone technology, and the dominant question that follows this conversation seems to be: "Is the FAA doing enough, today, or should it act with more urgency?"
Prominent D.C. venture capitalist and Revolution co-founder Ted Leonsis says that the government must act more quickly to regulate drones before a major accident takes place, which could critically damage the emerging industry’s ability to grow, develop and evolve. He said, in an interview with CBS This Morning, “we’re just one major accident away from basically the government saying we’re shutting down the drone industry.”
'we’re just one major accident away from the government shutting down the drone industry'
Hours after the White House incident, Leonsis wrote on the topic via a Forbes' article published on Friday morning. He then appeared on CBS This Morning on Saturday.
“My hope is that the drone regulations set by the FAA will set boundaries that are focused exclusively on public safety, which will allow drones and other traditional aviation vehicles to coexist in the airspace. It’s important for the federal government to find ways to merge the past and future without constraining innovation,” Leonsis wrote.
He added, “the delay [in federal legislation] could also prove costly in what was seemingly a major step forward for the drone industry in the U.S. This postponement has led to an outpour of concern and frustration and means the U.S. will fall even further behind other countries in innovation and the regulation and legalization of drones. In the void left by the federal government, state and local governments are instituting their own guidelines.”
"It’s important for the federal government to find ways to merge the past and future without constraining innovation"
At the moment, it’s unclear how restrictive potential federal regulation may be, but nonetheless, this threat is more present today than ever before. Because there is no overarching, nationwide policy, state and local governments are instituting their own guidelines. In Virginia and Maryland, for example, recently established policies will prohibit counties and municipalities from enacting their own laws on the use of drones. As a result, the statute puts the power in the hands of state officials.
Friday’s incident is far from the first that has occurred within the District—a jurisdiction where drones are banned from flying—but it shows a reoccurring theme, which is the ability of drones to easily cross into private territory without being detected. And it’s one that will undoubtedly be considered by the FAA as the process continues.
Understanding how and what regulation should be installed in the drone development debate is an especially cogent issue at home, in the D.C. area, as long-standing measures have created an exclusion zone in District airspace. In addition, a number of local drone development startups have slowly begun to mature, as both defense-related and commercial product demand continues to grow.
Leonsis ended his Forbes article by writing, “it is vital that the FAA finalize the rules now so future incidents can be avoided, businesses can innovate and the U.S. can compete with other countries who could take the lead if the U.S. doesn’t act.”
Just last week, DroneShield, a 1776 member company that develops drone detection hardware, raised a $950K debt round to expand operations. While impending legislation is undefined, these businesses exist in a twilight zone where their ability to function may be limited or cut-short in the near future. As such, attracting private investment remains a real challenge, because investors are unsure whether their bet will be undermined by the government.
Elsewhere, at the University of Maryland, a new innovative research facility called the Brendan Iribe Center is being constructed to include high-ceilings and a specific corridor for drone research, testing and academic study. Due to the university’s proximity to D.C., architects have decided to spend millions on developing an indoor drone site because of regulatory influence. The state of the art facility will be opened in 2018, at the forefront of the campus.
