A new white paper from Chinese drone maker DJI has accused the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of setting its standards far too low in determining what drones pose the lowest risk to people.
FAA’s 2015 registration task force (RTF) has noted that drones weighing up to 250gm posed the lowest risk.
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DJI claimed in the review that the FAA standard is based on poorly chosen data and ‘deeply flawed assumptions’, which include an almost 50-year old model.
In its white paper, jointly authored by DJI policy and legal affairs vice-president Brendan Schulman, the company also provides scientific inputs arguing that drones up to 2.2kg can be safely flown with the lowest risk.
Schulman said: “The RTF had only three days to decide how much a drone should weigh to require registration, and RTF members, including myself, unanimously set a 250gm limit for registration purposes only, not for safety rulemaking.
“Nevertheless, regulators around the world are using the FAA’s 250gm limit as a safety standard for the lowest-risk drones, despite its flaws.
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By GlobalData“We hope our white paper spurs more detailed evaluation for better and more accurate rulemaking.”
In the white paper, DJI also proposes more reasonable methods and data sources for calculating the figures selected by FAA to determine the risk of flying commercial drones.
