dChan
Anonymous ID: ac8794 April 28, 2019, 3:18 a.m. No.6345518   🗄️.is đź”—kun

Thought this was relevant since people discussing some sort of disclosure…

 

Ministers looking to bring in new rules for flying cars - The Telegraph

 

https://apple.news/A312VKq0CQVymFO3bSmW4-A

 

The Government is turning its focus to flying cars and looking “way beyond autonomous vehicles”, consultancy Drone Major Group said as it prepares to lobby for more testing grounds across the UK.

Drone Major Group has met with the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles, part of both the Department for Transport and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, in recent weeks, and said the unit was "thinking 'hang on a minute, an autonomous vehicle is an autonomous vehicle now but when is it going to take off, and how do we manage that?'"

Robert Garbett, chief executive of the consultancy, said things in the future transport industry will not necessarily slow, "but in terms of the regulation they're thinking, 'let's not put a patch on it now, let's try to create something that's robust in the future'". 

There had been suggestions this may be something the Department for Transport was looking at, having released a report by its Science Advisory Council last September saying: "Revolutionising commuter passenger air transport using short take-off and vertical take-off and landing applications is also on the horizon.

"As a consequence of these new modes of transport there will be a need to ensure that regulations are able to adapt to support these developing technologies.”

 

Drone Major Group is in the process of creating an industry-led white paper to give to the Government later this year, on the infrastructure needed to speed up the roll-out of drones in the UK.  It is expected to push for things such as new "sandbox sites" where operators and manufacturers could test their technology. 

News that the Government's focus is now on flying cars comes six months after the Government allocated £1m for the Civil Aviation Authority to create a so-called "regulatory lab" for industry and public bodies to come together to discuss future legislation in the sector.

There had been some concern that innovation around drones would stall, in light of new rules brought in earlier this year which extended existing no-fly zones.

The rules were brought in after Gatwick Airport was thrown into chaos late last year by suspected drone sightings, disrupting around 120,000 passengers' journeys. 

However, Richard Parker, chief executive of British drone software business Altitude Angel, said the "'Gatwick Issue' is mainly one of perception".

"It highlighted the message airports and other sensitive areas really need better detection systems and in particular, they need systems to track authorised flights within the air traffic zone," he said.Â