Here's one of the reasons that the FAA has seized control of all drones (including toys) and is slowing the development of automated aviation to a crawl. It's a dumb move, since it won't work, but they are doing it anyway.
The reason is that drones make disruption easy.
For example. Let's take a simple $1,350 drone like the X8 from 3D robotics. It's a good product, with solid duration (15m) and payload (.8 kg) numbers.
That's more than enough capability for significant disruption with a little innovation.
How so? With GPS auto-navigation and a container that auto-releases its payload over GPS coordinates (an easy mod), it can become the perfect delivery vehicle.
What could it deliver? Caltrops for example. A handful of caltrops can shut down automobile traffic on major highways for hours.
Combined with a drone, caltrops can shut down most ground transportation in a big city in less than an hour.
For example:
- Flight 3 mi. Fly to target. Drop payload. Fly back. - 13 minutes.
- Replace battery and refill cargo container - 5 minutes.
- Flight 2 mi. Fly to target. Drop payload. Fly back. - 9 minutes.
- Replace battery and refill cargo container - 5 minutes.
Iterate.
Recover vehicle and depart area. Potential for capture: very low.
Disruption potential? High.
The big question: Will the FAA effort to control drones protect against this type of disruption? No. It won't.
It actually makes the situation worse. It prevents the development of the safeguards an economically viable drone delivery network would produce.
Perversely, limiting drone use to big corps (that make political contributions) and government agencies, won't create the economic progress that will turn this technology into a beneficial innovation. It will do just the opposite. It will simply increase the level of economic corruption/stagnation we are already experiencing in the US.