BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2724
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
2724 (Gatto)
As Amended May 5, 2016
Majority vote
------------------------------------------------------------------
|Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Privacy |10-0 |Chau, Wilk, Calderon, | |
| | |Chang, Cooper, | |
| | |Dababneh, Gatto, | |
| | |Gordon, Low, Olsen | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: Requires unmanned aircraft system (UAS) makers to
provide safety and registration disclosures with the UAS at the
point of sale, requires certain UAS to be outfitted with a
"geofencing" feature, and requires UAS owners to have adequate
liability insurance. Specifically, this bill:
1)Establishes the Drone Registration Omnibus Negligence
Prevention Enactment (DRONE) Act.
2)Requires UAS sold in California to include in the product
packaging the following information:
AB 2724
Page 2
a) A copy of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) UAS
safety regulations; and
b) A notice that the UAS must be registered with the FAA.
3)Requires a UAS equipped with global positioning satellite
(GPS) mapping capabilities to be equipped with geofencing
technological capabilities that prohibit the UAS from flying
within five miles of an airport.
4)Requires the owner of a UAS to have adequate insurance against
liability, including coverage for potential damages for
personal bodily injuries and death, and for property damage,
resulting from the operation of the UAS.
5)Contains a severability clause and exempts commercial UAS
operators if they are operating under FAA permission.
FISCAL EFFECT: None. This bill has been keyed non-fiscal by
the Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose of this bill. This bill seeks to reduce the risk of
accidents posed by UAS accidents by requiring UAS product
packaging to include information about federal UAS regulations
and registration, requiring UAS owners to obtain liability
insurance in case of a UAS accident, and requiring UAS with
GPS units to contain a geofencing function to keep UAS from
flying within five miles of an airport. This bill is
author-sponsored.
2)Proliferation of recreational UAS and new FAA registration
rules. UAS are widely available to the public. Retail UAS
devices outfitted with cameras now range from roughly $300 to
AB 2724
Page 3
$1,500. The FAA estimates that nearly one million UAS were
sold during the December 2015 holiday season. In anticipation
of the influx of UAS in the skies, the FAA issued new rules in
2015 requiring any UAS weighing between half a pound and 55
pounds to be registered with the FAA by February 19, 2016.
The new FAA registration rules apply only to "model aircraft,"
i.e., recreational UAS. The FAA's Aerospace Forecast report
projects that the number of UAS in the U.S. will increase from
2.5 million in 2016 to 7 million in 2020 (4.3 million hobbyist
and 2.7 million commercial).
3)About geofencing technology. Given the increase in numbers of
UAS and reports of crashes and near misses, the technology is
developing to prevent drones from flying into unauthorized
areas. This technology, known as "geofencing," utilizes GPS
and other technologies to impose geographical limits on drone
movement. By default, a drone will not fly into "geofenced"
areas - it will simply stop and hover at the boundary. The
technology has the potential to prevent drones from flying
into areas such as airport runways, government properties, and
in the vicinity of natural disasters. Requiring geofencing
technology for GPS-enabled UAS sold in California would likely
pose additional design and licensing costs for UAS makers.
However, California-specific environmental and safety
standards are neither unique nor insurmountable, as the auto
industry meets state-specified emissions standards in order to
sell cars in this state.
4)Liability insurance requirement. This bill requires all
owners of recreational UAS to procure "adequate protection
against liability" to cover damages for personal injury and
death and for property damage that may result from a UAS
accident. In practice, UAS owners would either have to ensure
that their current homeowner's insurance policies would cover
a UAS accident, or obtain supplemental insurance to cover
potential personal injury and damages that may be caused by
operating their UAS. However, the question of how much
AB 2724
Page 4
protection is "adequate" remains open.
5)Forthcoming FAA regulation of commercial UAS. In 2012,
Congress passed the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012
which required the FAA to establish a framework for safely
integrating commercial UAS into the national airspace no later
than September 30, 2015, and authorized the FAA to establish
interim requirements for the commercial operation of UAS.
Under the interim rules, UAS operators must meet certain
standards and apply for a commercial use exemption and an FAA
Certificate of Authorization (COA) in order to operate in in
"navigable airspace," which is generally above 500 feet. This
bill would exempt from its provisions any UAS flown pursuant
to a COA issued by the FAA or future FAA regulations.
6)The federal preemption issue. Once the FAA has finished
promulgating regulations governing the commercial deployment
of UAS, which is expected to occur in the next two years, a
future court may find that those federal regulations preempt
certain state laws, or parts thereof - such as this one, if
passed - but much remains uncertain. This bill contains a
severability provision, so that if one section is preempted
the other sections remain in force.
Analysis Prepared by:
Jennie Bretschneider / P. & C.P. / (916)
319-2200
FN: 0002878
AB 2724
Page 5