Japan lifts ban on automated drone flights over residential areas

You cannot fly ,drone in most spaces,that have airports near

@Chabbawanga what makes you think they are filming your kids? That kind of attitude get a father locked up without his kids! Then ask yourself what kind of dad are you, being locked up? Irrational decisions cause mind blowing decisions!

a drone starts hovering near my house and recording my kids, its getting smashed out of the sky

That said, I would be for drones to replace the inefficient use of Helicopters by TV Broadcasters, and Emergency services. But, you need to look at the current situation to see how useless these groups are, and then the Government wants to throw into the fray the rest of the idiots ?

Something lands on my house, who will pay the damages !

Does a Number plate exist ?

Some drone slices my hand off whilst crash landing, who is going to pay... the uninsured ? I loose my 4 Million / year salary for a 100,000 yen drone and suffer thereafter ?

A drone crashes into an airline and takes down 180+ people who crash and destroy my only Family... who is responsible ? imagine the disaster I'm left with, without the breadwinner of my Family in order to pay the debt of my now, non existent home.

This decision is totally wrong, just as is the introduction of commercial flights over such a densely populated are of Tokyo. In Japan, unlike the US, we can't sue for vast amounts of money, simply we get a fixed amount - small really, so it's easy to do bad business here, since it won't hurt you in the long run.

This is totally wrong, it increases the chances of a major air disaster between these RC aircraft and Larger Commercial versions.

Japan has recently increased the Commercial flights over the densely packed Central Tokyo area. It's like playing with fire - even a crash from a Helicopter will cause a huge amount of Damage and loss of life - as there's simply no place to crash land other than a residential area.

I hope the Mayors of the impacted wards, can be held personally responsible for such loss of life in such an eventuality.

Soon I'll be sending my drone shopping for me so I can finish my Beer. and when it returns it will bring me more you guessed it, BEER.

Sounds EXTREMELY COMPLICATED, butter keep on driving that Good Old truck and deliver 10,000 boxes at once.

Drones are best in remote areas, but in cities? FORGET IT.

I know who lobbied for this to be approved. LMFAO

While there are all kinds of logistical and public safety (and privacy) issues to work out, in large cities drones could be the source of real cost efficiencies in logistics.

Yes, there is a labor shortage and it's only going to get worse.

The crowded, spagetti-like roads drive up fuel costs and environmental pollution.

Drone carrying capabilites and AI obstacle and people avoidance capabilities are only going to increase.

Noise is a problem NOW. This is a problem that can be mitigated/solved through engineering and performance requirements to operate in residential areas.

In rural areas, drone deliveries could vastly improve infrastructure and last-mile delivery costs.

There are a lot of positives and the negatives can be mitigated or solved.

No, there is no big brother coming to spy on you. Get a grip. This isn't China and it's not going to become China. Don't you people see how privacy obsessed the average Japanese citizen is to begin with?

Not ony the cost and convenience factors, but the environmental benefits could be quite large if the drone batteries are recharged via clean energy.

One can embrace the future or one can nit-pick and go live in a cave, but like industrialization, increased drone usage is a given. Fighting it is like building a sand castle at low tide and then trying to keep the ocean at bay.

They are noisy. Even the small buzz. Attraction sites usually have someone using them. Sites like Himeji Castle bans drones. An American crash onto the castle roof.

There is also the problem with those overhead cables, power, telephone, broadband, and cable TV. In big cities like Tokyo people live in apartment blocks mainly.

I don't want to see drones buzzing around overhead.

That illusion too comes and goes, like those segways, rental battery mini bicycles and all such. A big mouth and talking now about a great future, then a few fake deliveries under excellent model conditions, and then after some weeks or months being set really into practice , soon afterwards the problem catalogs arise and all those toys are nowhere to see anymore and forgotten very fast.

https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20200322-french-police-deploy-drones-helicopters-to-enforce-coronavirus-restrictions-covivd-19-lockdown

As an added bonus, that same drone can alert the authorities if you're on your balcony in violation of lockdown orders.

Like they do in China.

Not only China, France too used drones to chase people violating the lockdown.

How exactly are you going to smash a drone out of the sky?

Long pole with a hammer on one end

Disasters waiting to happen! But sooner or later this was going to happen.

Also, as others have mentioned there is no labor shortage in Japan but companies are just not making effort to increase the wages and recruitment process is a farce! Labor shortage is a common excuse used by the Government to push bills through on a regular basis. Articles like these on labor shortages gives a false impression for people reading it abroad instead of realizing what the actual situation is!

Japan lifts ban on automated drone flights over residential areas

So, what which politician exactly is responsible for this madness? Just quoting "Japan" is not very informative. Drones pose a serious threat to both privacy and safety. If one of those drones cut out your eye, how do we know who is the operator responsible? If "Japan" is not going to keep us safe from danger, we are going to end up with an anarchy society, where each individual will have to protect themselves, with whatever means available.

Good luck dodging all those power lines. Who pays if two drones collide?

Japan on Monday lifted its ban on automated drone flights over residential areas to allow aerial parcel deliveries

There must have been some serious "lobbying" to allow that.

No labor shortage. Wages shortage.

There is no labor shortage. This excuse is always used to introduce technologies and reduce the need for Human Resources.

Got tired of noisy drones at cherry blossom time, Golden Week and summer time, buzzing around the trees and beauty spots; YouTubers and Social Media Influencers looking for their 10 seconds of fame. Worse than mosquitoes and crickets.

Can't someone make a silent model?

So if you're a peeping Tom, all you have to do is write "Sagawa Express" on your drone and you're good to go.

Will there be air traffic control for these drones? If these things become weaponized by regular people, it would be better to understand if there is an unauthorized drone flying around a crowd of people.

YouTubers rejoice.

↑stalking, noise pollution, china like surveillance, people are way too paranoid these days. Now, people in the US deliver single sandwiches/bento boxes using their sedans, just how stupidly backwards is that?

The future of logistics is in the air. This has been discussed some 10 years ago while I was still at Nippon Express.

@channawanga

How exactly are you going to smash a drone out of the sky?

theResidentToday  08:47 am JST

do you know how many grams a drone can carry??

your HOT food will never be delivered, only in your dream.

@indigo: Paranoid argument.

Looking forward to getting HOT food delivered to my Balcony :)

they changed the law to allow police drone surveillance like in CHINA. Big brother is coming.

Do we really desire more noise pollution? Who wants irritating, low-flying drones buzz buzz buzzing through their neighborhood? Not me!

a drone starts hovering near my house and recording my kids, its getting smashed out of the sky