We suppose by now everyone knows that driving while drunk is a crime, and now it seems like operating a drone while intoxicated could soon be a crime as well. In a report from Reuters, New Jersey’s Assembly is currently slated to vote on a bill that has been approved by the Senate to outlaw drone operations while under the influence.
Reuters quotes a drone enthusiast John Sullivan as saying, “It’s basically like flying a blender. If I had like one drink, I’d be hesitant to even fly it.” The report also cites an incident in 2015 where an off-duty employee of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency who drunkenly flew and crashed a drone on the White House’s lawn.
In recent times we’ve started to see an uptake in the number of laws that are looking to regulate the use and operations of drones. For example we’ve seen how government agencies in various parts of the world are trying to get drone owners to register their drones. We’ve also seen efforts from dronemakers such as DJI who are trying to comply with the law by including geofencing features in their software to prevent drones from flying into areas that they aren’t supposed to, like airports, prisons, government property, and so on.