UK FIRMS DEVELOP DRONE FREEZING RAY

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-34475158

pretty simple technology, whoever has the more powerful transmitter emitting at 2.4 GHZ wins.  

I dont like the freeze till the battery dies idea, i wonder if the low battery notice (thus a RTH) from our drones would override the freeze?

Dumb invention by companies trying to make a quick buck on the current scares is my impression. It will not stop reckless idiots who will fly where they shouldn't anyway. It won't make a difference to responsible flyers  as they won't fly there anyway.

Now, let's say they use this machine on a drone in a restricted airspace. I should think there's a good chance it will crash with all the possible consequences. Either because the battery runs out or because the flyer panics and makes mistakes. Either way, we have a drone crashing uncontrolled, possibly on to a road around an airport or even worse into a crowd in or around a stadium. So you've got the drone out of the air where it most likely wasn't really causing a problem and created a real problem.

Let's assume after that you manage to identify and prosecute the pilot (Assuming he was so stupid to hang around and didn't just hoof it). I should think the "worst" you can prosecute him for is flying unauthorised (punishable by a fine). I very much doubt you can actually prosecute him for the crash and the crash results, because his defence quite obviously will be that if you hadn't interfered with his drone he wouldn't have crashed and therefore nothing would have happened. You'll struggle to prove that he would have crashed anyway.

Luckily the CAA seems to be sensible and has no plans to utilise these.

agrewe Posted at 2015-10-10 08:17
Dumb invention by companies trying to make a quick buck on the current scares is my impression. It w ...

You nailed it in one. Massive overkill, as is said by someone in the article, education is a better option. And to answer ksunsingh, if the aircraft is denied radio communication, then you will not be able to issue a RTH, however it will not stop the aircraft from deciding to either RTH automatically on low battery or simply land.