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Comment by SoSoRoCoCo | Hacker News Reader

This is odd: night would be the time when I would think people don't want to hear "whirrrrrrr...' of drones flying over their houses.

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I've never heard a drone even close to as loud as my neighbor's motorcycle but it's legal to drive that any time.

I have a small DJI Mini 2 drone and it's pretty much impossible to hear over the street noise in my neighborhood if it's more than about 50 feet up in the air.

Motorcycles are certainly worse than drones in terms of noise pollution! I've never had a drone audible from 2 streets over with my double glazed windows shut, but I hear motorcycles daily (and nightly).

In North America it's very common for motorcyclist to use aftermarket exhausts that are louder than stock parts, and often against local regulations.

I think a better analogy would be living near an airport like I do. Depending on the day and weather, even my small airport is quite loud and annoying. My neighbor's motorcycle is also louder than the planes, except the occasional military jet, but that noise is far less frequent than the planes. I think drone delivery will mean everyone in cities and suburbs will feel like they live near a small airport on a clear day. I too am not looking forward to the flying drone future. I think we should be working on reducing noise as much as possible, not create more in the name of slightly more convenient consumerism.

Yeah, even if all of the logistical and technical issues of drone delivery make it economically viable for Amazon (or whoever) - I think I might boycott Amazon as a company if they started using drones for any deliveries. They are just so obnoxiously loud I would probably welcome people shooting them out of the sky (or if you're awesome you can use an eagle).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8v5hCxBZTh0

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-35750816

Plenty of companies hard at work on making anti-drone tech consumer friendly. Rejoice!

Which will quickly be made illegal if it interferes with major commercial activity

I'm not sure what "anti-drone tech" could mean other than RF jamming, which is already very illegal.

Birdshot?

I’d pay good money for a shotgun-like device that had power enough to take down the drones foreigners like to fly meters from my face videotaping me as I walk down the beach, but not powerful enough to be dangerous to use in such contexts.

hard to see how this could be legal. you don't get to destroy other people's stuff just because they are annoying you with it. even if what they are doing is not quite legal, you would probably end up on the wrong side of the law yourself.

> you don't get to destroy other people's stuff just because they are annoying you with it.

right, but that was on the dude's property, not a public beach. also it was in kentucky.

Even on a public beach, it could be harassment. IANAL, but it might even qualify as assault.

If the "foreigners" are visitors to USA, they would face real difficulty getting the law interested in this sort of case. Perhaps other nations are more welcoming to obnoxious tech dudes?

> drones foreigners like to fly meters from my face videotaping me

Please explain. I'm genuinely curious.

Not the OP, but I've seen this happen in certain state and national parks.

I started chucking rocks at a "drone" flown by a tourist that got in my face at a state park in Arizona once. The "pilot" started shouting at me in German. He was very surprised to learn that my childhood taught me how to shout back at people in German.

I was doing yoga in a sports bra and short shorts on my back deck that faces a canyon and had a drone with lights and cameras fly down to my house directly above the deck railing within a few meters of me. It was completely obnoxious and completely startled me. I thought it was a neighbor playing with an RC car out in the street at first until I saw the lights in the sky.

When you spoke to the manager what did he say?

Not sure what there is to explain. I regularly walk my dog along a ~1 mile stretch of secluded but public beach, and a handful of times groups of foreigners have had their drones follow me obnoxiously closely for prolonged periods, I assume recording me. The camera stays pointed at me, though I very clearly shoo it away with my hands, avert my gaze, and block my face with my hair.

Obviously not a shotgun - but if you're serious about wanting to safely disable drones you can buy net guns that actually work.

https://netgun.com/

A strong laser with automated tracker might be enough to melt something on it

High velocity low mass shot pellets propelled in the drone’s general direction via pyrotechnics or similar?

Noise pollution can be regulated separately.

It should be part of the rule allowing them to fly at night. It's clearly related, why delay?

because the Gov. only likes to combine laws when it suits them... i.e.: corona virus stimulus package and felony for streaming

And (some) HN commenters only like to combine issues when it suits them :-)

guilty

> It's clearly related, why delay?

Different regulations are handled by different authorities. Noise is often regulated at a local level.

For example, someone living close to the Niagara Falls may not be bothered by the same drone noise that someone in a remote area without much ambient noise might be.

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