Weird idea, but... If you were up in the air maybe above people or property and your drone was about to lose power (fly away, lost VLOS, etc.), would it help improve safety if the drone could automatically deploy an emergency parachute to protect any people or property underneath? Yes I know you're not supposed to fly over people, but as a backup - would this help improve safety? And maybe this could even save your drone for another day, unless you land in water?

I used to fly model rockets and they all had a very light weight prachute so the rocket could descend without any damage.

There would be a trade-off in additional weight (much more than for a model rocket) of the parachute and deployment hardware. This would cut down flying time.   

at first it sounds rational enough but when all relevant factors are considered i end up with a 'No'

Many times when a drone fails, it tumbles as it falls, this would make the deployment of a parachute difficult as a guess

Even safer would be to prohib flights over people or property.  Perhaps write the government reps and have them get on it.  Heaven forbid we don't have another landscape photo to add to the millions on Youtube or websites because innocent people couldn't be flown over.  

I have seen videos on them. Most are tested close up . They looked like they were deployed by the pilot.
At a distance or out of site you would need some kind of mechanism that would automatic deploy without pilot input when the drone was falling.
For me I don't think you need one.

Thanks for bringing us the attention, will forward the idea to the engineers.

One issue would be of parachute deployment on small drones like Mavic Air or even Mavic Pros.  
Assuming, initially the drone started falling with Props up - props would be turning either do to power or windmilling.  Parachute itself and strings would have to come out in area between four spinning props.
The idea of parachute on small drones would really require incorporation in next model or generation.

Edited - Okay, the parachute could come out from bottom.  But that would add a delay to parachute getting opened fully.  Along with issue of drone falling into parachute if drone was hovering and there was little to no wind.

To get rapid deployment of parachute would require some type of safe air blast.  You sure would not want to use something that could injure drone pilot.  There would also be an issue of transporting a drone that had any kind of rapid parachute deployment.  Whether that transport was by personal vehicle, airplane travel, or paid ground carrier.