Not a day goes by without a drone doing something stupid. With a little help from the human being controlling it, of course. This time, though, they’ve gone a little too far and Japan is the first to go for a hands-on approach.
Recently, drones have been accused of smuggling cell phones inside U.S. prisons, but imagine what else these unmanned aerial vehicles could be dropping off in the courtyard. Anything ranging from the classic metal file to a knife and even a firearm could end up in the hands of the inmates.
Somebody in Japan has taken things even a step further, turning the drone into a veritable assault aircraft. Unlike the flame throwing UAV we showed you yesterday, this guy didn’t attach weapons to it. Nope. He simply used a piece of radioactive material and flew the drone onto the prime minister’s office building. That’s a pretty serious security breach, if you ask us, since the drone could have very easily been carrying a small explosive charge, turning it into a potentially lethal weapon had it detonated next to the politician’s window, for example.
This happened in April 2015, so the Japanese officials had plenty of time to come up with an appropriate answer. They found it in the form of a so-called drone squad, a police unit that will patrol around important buildings scanning the air for drones. If a suspicious flying vehicle is detected, the officers will use loudspeakers on the ground to tell the drone’s operator to land it immediately. If they don’t comply, then the policemen will use their own net-equipped drones to bring it down.
The Japanese police have even released a video footage of its net-drone in action, and we can only say one thing: Is anyone else excited about the inevitable drone chases that will follow? Also, we can’t shake the feeling that a squadron of highly trained hawks would do a much better job.
Paul Haswell, a partner at legal firm Pinsent Masons, spoke with BBC about the drone legislation in Japan, and he said that "[...] it is illegal to pilot drones over certain areas such as airports and power plants, over roads, or above a height of 150m. Some cities such as Tokyo and Osaka have also outlawed their use in parks."
Oh, we’ll be hearing more about drones from all around the world, that’s for sure.
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