Analysis: The legal landscape surrounding the use of drones is currently far from clear and many practical questions remain unanswered.
Once only found in the realm of science fiction movies, drone delivery services are now an increasingly obvious part of our urban landscape. Service providers such as Manna and Wing (the latter operated by Google’s parent company Alphabet) are now delivering an ever growing range of items to consumers and corporate entities, particularly across the Dublin region: from coffee and pastries to medical supplies and devices.
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From RTÉ Radio 1’s Brendan O’Connor Show, Bobby Healy from Manna Aero drone deliveries on delivering fast food around Dublin
But as the phenomenon of drone deliveries increases, the concerns of home owners and residents negatively impacted by the rapid rise in the number of flyovers have attracted ever greater media attention. In recent weeks, the Air Accident Investigation Unit reported on an incident in Dublin in 2022 where a man was struck by a propeller blade which had separated from a drone and had fallen on him as he mowed the lawn. Fears in relation to the potential for privacy breaches have also generated considerable attention as have complaints in relation to the noise generated by the whirring of the drones themselves.
Unfortunately, the legal landscape surrounding the use of drones is far from clear. While to some extent drone usage is regulated at both an Irish and European level – with the Irish Aviation Authority playing an important role in this regard – many practical legal questions remain unanswered. Can a home owner, for instance, prevent drone delivery companies from flying over their property? Or can they sue for trespass where flyovers do occur in the airspace over their home?
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From RTÉ Radio 1’s News at One, Tom Kuhn from Wing on how drones are being used to deliver medical supplies to private hospitals
In the past, it was said that the owner of land owned everythi
30 Comments
GuestFAUniverse
Don't overthink it: get a permission for one or many flag poles ;-)
paulddraper
Has a very easy answer in the US: No.
You do not own your airspace. The FAA owns your airspace.
You can build a tall structure (subject to local laws). But anything above that is outside your control.
—
This article, however, is about Ireland.
SoftTalker
In my neighborhood (rural) a drone hovering over someone's property would be likely used as target practice.
If delivery drones become commonplace, there are going to have to be regulations about which air corridors they can use (altitude and routes) or it will be chaos.
neepi
Clearly the solution is to obtain anti delivery drone drones and bag all the free stuff that falls out of the sky into your property.
rolph
drones have minimum distance and altitude regulations as well as restrictions from operating above people.
also, stock up on fishing line
Fairburn
I hear that a focused low power EMP zot can do wonders .. /s
Greta4Gaza
[flagged]
fifticon
well, if you are russian, it appears not.
Yeul
How is drone delivery economically feasible? The carry weight is negligible, the range is paltry and they still require operators- whom I'm sure earn more than your average white van man.
Balgair
Aside:
It's going to be a great time when the crows, raccoons, and other semi-intelligent wildlife discover that these drones have food in them at seemingly random reward schedules.
Sure, you can give the drones little tasers to keep the animals away, depending on your locality. But knowing what I know about bears and crows, almost nothing is going to stop them. Especially when some influencer jerk tries tempting a bunch of them with a box just oozing honey or some other high value food.
ihsw
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friendlyprezz
There sure is one way to stop em
Palmer lucky made another way too, an EMP that looks like a portable speaker
antithesizer
my advice on this question is the same as my advice on most questions: befriend the crows.
thrill
"The legal landscape surrounding the use of drones is currently far from clear…"
It is quite clear. The FAA considers drones aircraft. There are exceptions for how drones and RC aircraft operate regarding the restrictions that other aircraft operate. The Federal government is quite within its legal rights to fully prosecute anyone damaging an airborne drone for any reason other than a valid emergency. If the drone operator acts in an illegal or unsafe manner, and you sitting in your backyard bitching about them is not within that criteria, and you interfere with it, expect federal law to be used against you.
monkaiju
I really hope this type of delivery never catches on… I live in a fairly urban location and still get to do great birdwatching in my backyard.
Woodpeckers, hummingbirds, geese and ducks flying over between the various lakes. Losing out on that just so Amazon can make more money (not to mention potentially spy on us even more effectively) would be tragic
deepsun
Discuss it with your city/county council. If it annoys enough people, you might introduce regulations, aka making agreement with the drone operators.
Bluescreenbuddy
Not in the US. Property owners do not own the airspace above their property.
486sx33
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juliusluna879
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_carbyau_
My concern is less the occasional drone and more when Google decides that all their delivery drones – already carrying cameras/radar/lidar for navigational purposes – can be used to update google maps in near realtime.
The sheer Big Brother possibilities are insane.
The future: "saferoom is where the pants aren't"
Brian_K_White
The current ambiguity will magically find itself disambiguated pretty soon after we have our own drones camp out over politician's own homes, in numbers.
paulcole
This is one of the very best examples of a situation where you can exercise and improve your ability to just let it go and move on with your life.
Aziell
I live in a pretty quiet neighborhood, and I’m not thrilled about the idea of drones flying over my backyard all the time. There’s something really jarring about sitting outside and suddenly hearing that loud buzzing overhead. I don’t think anyone’s really asked regular people how they feel about this kind of thing.
renewiltord
One of the things I find incredibly annoying is that delivery drivers will drive by my home even when they're not delivering to me. Did they even ask for my consent? Once they have self-driving cargo vans, I'm just going to shoot out their tires so they can't spy on me.
Or that's what I would sound like if I was a looneybin.
jbattle
I dread the idea. The leaf blowers running nonstop 10 months a year are noisy enough.
Maybe I can convince all my neighbors to fly barrage balloons in all the back yards.
simplesimon890
I live in the path of the drones mentioned in the article and it's an incredibly frustrating experience to be outside and have them fly over the property. they are noisy, intrusive, and increasingly more frequent ( maybe a pass nearby every half hour on a busy day )
Living in an urban environment always will entail some unwanted sounds, dogs barking, passing cars, the occasional helicopter or whatever, but to have a drone passing over your neighborhood to deliver someone coffee or a parcel feels like exploiting every possible avenue to make money, regardless of how disruptive it is to the local population.
However bad they are now, it will be 10x the number of drones in a few years. It's a depressing thought…. but hey, at least someone gets their shitty coffee and adds a few euro to the profit of some company so it'll all be worth it in the end.
pmarreck
Pretty soon they will be using more silent rotors, which already exist and for some-odd reason aren't yet used in the drone space
mediumsmart
Probably, but what are you going to do with all the stuff?
Joker_vD
waves his hands right before your nose "The air is common! I am not touching you!"
Well, it's still obnoxious. Either fly over the roads, or fly high enough (50 m? 100?) to be unreachable.
victorbjorklund
I just dont understand why we are doing this. Delievery within a city is a solved issue. Wanna get rid of humans? self-driving cars.