Justin Towles Quoted in Law360 Article on New FAA Rules Regulating Drones
Contact:
Akin Gump senior policy advisor Justin Towles has been quoted in the Law360 article “FAA’s New Drone Rules Only A ‘Starting Point’ For Businesses.” The article reports on recently finalized rules allowing drones to fly over people and at night, which Towles described as “a starting point, not an ending point.”
The article says that, while the rules clear certain barriers for commercial drone operators, there is still some uncertainty over issues such as whether state and local governments can apply their own privacy standards. For those that do, it says they could end up at odds with the FAA, since it views itself as controlling navigable airspace effectively down to the ground.
Towles pointed out that a drone flown by a delivery company, for example, is likely not any more intrusive than surveillance that many people routinely encounter such as license plate readers or building security cameras, but the privacy risks posed by drones are often perceived differently.
“It may only be perception, but that’s what is important to people,” Towles said. “People’s opinions and how they feel matters, and that’s what drives policy. So you can’t dismiss perception. Instead, you have to try to find a way to alleviate those concerns or educate the public, if that’s the proper angle.”
Another obstacle in the way of broader commercial use of drones, according to the article, revolves around routine beyond-line-of-sight operations—an issue that is more clearly within the FAA’s jurisdiction.
Those operations, at least in populated areas, are also inherently tied up with the need to establish a broad “unmanned traffic management” system, providing awareness of where drones are in relation to each other and allowing them to automatically avoid each other—a complicated issue that means related rules are probably still several years away, said Towles.
Looking ahead, Towles added that more details on the issues addressed in the rules are expected. “Overall, I think this is a step forward and another foundational piece to move the industry along,” he said.