14 DAY TRIAL // A recent proposal in the United States might put Aamazon's plans to ship packages using drones on hold, but it appears that the European Union could soon adopt similar laws that would better control the use of unmanned aircraft on the Old Continent.
The House of Lords EU Committee has proposed a new set of regulations that would require businesses and individual owners of drones to register them online and thus have better control of drone traffic taking place in Europe.
While creating an online register for drones could have a significant impact on this rapidly developing industry and would take years because of the number of drones already available on the continent, UK authorities believe this could lead to more effective management of the whole industry sector.
In addition to the online register, the proposed regulations also include additional geo-fencing options that would block the use of drones near specific locations, such as airports and prisons, based on a set of pre-defined GPS coordinates.
What's more, UK authorities believe that educating police officers about the use of drones and creating special logos that would be placed on each drone that has been approved for flight in the European Union would help control the traffic.
Big challenges for the EU
But the biggest challenge is to actually keep track of the drones bought overseas and being used in Europe.
Right now, a big part of the drones being used here are bought from China, so the European Union must find a way to make sure that imported unmanned aircraft are checked as well.
This would also provide additional control over any drone that could be used by criminals or terrorists, as bypassing the rules and skipping online registration could become a common practice for those intending to conduct illegal activities.
The House of Lords EU Committee said that the drone industry needs to have a clear set of rules that would provide better control of the drones used in Europe, as the number of unmanned aircraft used on the continent is growing at an alarming rate.
A total of 150,000 jobs related to the drone industry are expected to be created in the next 20 years, which does nothing more than to emphasize the huge boost that this sector is likely to experience in the long term.