Sky's the limit: Rise of delivery drones has U.S. cities asking who owns airspace
With technology moving much faster than laws, we are now caught up with this question: who owns the air above a piece of land, and how far up (or down) does that ownership extend?
When we started digging pipes and subways, the question of land ownership below the surface was more or less addressed. Most, if not all countries have laws in place delineating how deep land ownership goes.
But now, we start to have things flying over our heads, above our houses, over our yards. Yet, the legislation regarding ownership of space over a piece of land is still very much in its infancy, if born at all. Nations have such a definition for delineating between territorial airspace and outer space. But such a definition cannot serve private use. We can't have private ownership extending into the stratosphere; how can commercial aircraft fly if they have to get permission to fly over every piece of privately owned land?
So what is a realistic height for private ownership? We really need to answer this question NOW. Not just because of delivery drones. There are already companies working on the next step: flying Uber. Before we know it, there will be flying cars, and we will need to have boundaries in place for these flying cars because, unlike land-based cars, there are no physical roads to show them where they can and cannot go.
Just like we need rules to govern AI, we also need rules to govern this new dimension of personal mobility. I hope the relevant people get to work on this soon, because it is never good to be lagging behind. Companies should have the rules in place before they start research and development within those rules. Once they have come up with something, spending all that money, it is difficult to draw rules that will limit use of new technologies. If we try to do so, we can expect those companies, who have invested so much, to invest in lobbying to prevent such restrictions on what they have spent money on trying to earn more money. That's a sad fact of life.
With technology moving much faster than laws, we are now caught up with this question: who owns the air above a piece of land, and how far up (or down) does that ownership extend?
When we started digging pipes and subways, the question of land ownership below the surface was more or less addressed. Most, if not all countries have laws in place delineating how deep land ownership goes.
But now, we start to have things flying over our heads, above our houses, over our yards. Yet, the legislation regarding ownership of space over a piece of land is still very much in its infancy, if born at all. Nations have such a definition for delineating between territorial airspace and outer space. But such a definition cannot serve private use. We can't have private ownership extending into the stratosphere; how can commercial aircraft fly if they have to get permission to fly over every piece of privately owned land?
So what is a realistic height for private ownership? We really need to answer this question NOW. Not just because of delivery drones. There are already companies working on the next step: flying Uber. Before we know it, there will be flying cars, and we will need to have boundaries in place for these flying cars because, unlike land-based cars, there are no physical roads to show them where they can and cannot go.
Just like we need rules to govern AI, we also need rules to govern this new dimension of personal mobility. I hope the relevant people get to work on this soon, because it is never good to be lagging behind. Companies should have the rules in place before they start research and development within those rules. Once they have come up with something, spending all that money, it is difficult to draw rules that will limit use of new technologies. If we try to do so, we can expect those companies, who have invested so much, to invest in lobbying to prevent such restrictions on what they have spent money on trying to earn more money. That's a sad fact of life.
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