Should Human-Operated and Automated Vehicles Have to Meet the Same Standards?

Should drones have to abide by the same safety regulations as human-operated aircraft?

Whether humans and machines should be regulated the same way when attempting to accomplish the same task is a question regulators are struggling with, according to a recent discussion in Washington about technology policy hosted by the Center for Data Innovation. 

At the Office of Science and Technology Policy, “the way we think about these [technologies] is whether or not they present a unique risk,” compared to manned vehicles, policy advisor Terah Lyons said Wednesday.

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“It’s still an interesting regulatory question mark for us when we think about truly autonomous aircraft systems,” she said. “The way the [Federal Aviation Administration] is approaching that regulatory question is by applying the same safety standards exactly to these unmanned aircraft systems as they have been” with the conventional forms, In other words, the expectation is that both types of aircraft should safely achieve their intended purpose of delivering passengers or cargo. 

The White House recently released a report on the future of artificial intelligence, which incorporated elements from an open request for information on the topic. “The general consensus of the RFI commenters was that broad regulation of AI research or practice would be inadvisable at this time,” the report said.

The FAA hasn't released "a clear path to a regulation" for fully autonomous flight, but "safe integration of autonomous aircraft into the airspace will be a complex process," the report said. "[T]he FAA is preparing for a not-so-distant technological future in which autonomous and piloted aircraft fly together in a seamlessly integrated airspace system."