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Glad to see this. I've been making the sound pollution argument since the original Amazon commercial.

My lab neighbors a drone research lab. The noise from a single drone is surprisingly distracting even with the door shut. The HOAs would be in the streets the first week.

Volume aside, a lot of the annoyance comes from the unnatural sound of four motors running at slightly different speeds, going in and out of tune with one another.

Unfortunately, noise pollution is at the very bottom of public agencies' priority list.

Even in Europe, with stricter regulators and less tolerance towards loud and obnoxious behavior, it's way too common to hear tuned motorcycles blasting 110dB engine screeches at 2AM, keeping everyone in the neighborhood awake. In theory it's not allowed, in reality the bikers can do it with impunity any time they please. Drones would at least provide some beneficial service.

It's a lot easier to get a small handful of delivery companies to comply with noise pollution regulations than it is to get a large number of motorcyclists to comply. It's also easier to write very strict noise pollution standards for new technology like drones than it is to write very strict standards for existing popular technology like cars and motorcycles.

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