Cali-dronication: Yet Another Golden State Drone Bill Blooms

California drone owners may have to pay a visit to the Geico Gecko or that amusing Progressive Insurance lady soon if a California legislator gets his way.

Assemblyman Mike Gatto introduced the Drone Registration/Omnibus Negligence-prevention Enactment (DRONE) Act of 2016 last week. The bill will hold UAV owners “responsible for registering and obtaining physical or electronic ‘license plates’ for drones.”

The Santa Barbara legislator claimed in a press release that “if cars have license plates and insurance, drones should have the equivalent, so they can be properly identified, and owners can be held financially responsible, whenever injuries, interference, or property damage occurs.”

The bill will:

• Require registration of, and tiny physical or electronic license plates for, drones [although the bill does not describe how such licensing technology would work or where owners can get it].
• Require “inexpensive” insurance policies sold at the point-of-sale;
• Mandate that drones of a certain size, and equipped with GPS capability, feature automatic shut-off technology that would activate if approaching an airport.

This is Gatto’s second attempt to regulate Golden State drones. In 2015, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed SB 168, a similar bill that would have “granted immunity to any emergency responder who damages an unmanned aircraft in the course of firefighting, air ambulance, or search-and-rescue operations.”

“One could imagine the auto industry balking at the idea of registration requirements at the turn-of-the-century, but the industry survived,” Gatto said in justifying his latest bill.  “As technology evolves, so must our laws in order to protect our citizenry.  This is a sensible measure that will increase public safety and encourage responsible use of drones in California.”

However, as of press time, Gatto’s office offered no actual projected cost analysis to the drone industry nor any guarantees that the required insurance would not be cost prohibitive beyond his personal belief that such insurance will cost “$1, or so.”

Gatto is not alone in his desire to add regulatory burdens to California drone users. On Wednesday, State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson introduced a new bill that would limit drone flights near public and private property. Jackson’s bill would limit drone use within 500 feet of critical infrastructure, including bridges, power plants, hospitals, water delivery systems, and oil refineries; within 1,000 feet of a heliport, or within 5 miles of an airport – among other restrictions.

Both bills may get a federal smack-down, given the recent a FAA advisory warning that the federal agency retained sole “authority to regulate the areas of airspace use, management and efficiency, air traffic control, safety, navigational facilities, and aircraft noise at its source.”