Drones taking off as hot holiday gifts
NEW YORK – Santa’s sleigh isn’t the only thing flying this holiday season.
Drones – flying devices that often carry cameras and can be navigated remotely by smartphones or controllers – have taken off as popular gifts, as novices have become just as interested in the devices as serious hobbyists. The demand has grown as the industry and government are working together to address safety concerns.
Best Buy expanded its selection from one last year to eight different models in stores and five more online because of rising demand. BHPhoto.com now offers 140-plus models online that range from $50.99 to $6,500. And Amazon says Parrot’s $160 MiniDrone Rolling Spider and DJI’s Phantom 2 Vision+ Quadcopter, which costs about $1,000, have been “popular sellers.”
Michael Perry, spokesman for DJI, which also makes the new Inspire models, said demand for drones has moved “pretty dramatically out of being a pretty niche field into more of a consumer electronics field.”
Victoria Blevins, 37, from Woodbridge, Virginia, is buying a Parrot 2.0 drone copter that retails for $299 for her teenage son. Her son likes aeronautical engineering, electronics and computers.
Blevins did say, though, that safety will be a focus when her son using the device. “He won’t be using it unsupervised,” Blevins said.
Safety concerns have grown with the popularity of drones. In Belgrade in October, a drone carrying a banner over a soccer field ignited an on-field brawl. A plane in London’s Heathrow airport had a near-miss with a drone in December. And in October an Oregon man pleaded guilty to violating a ban on drones in national parks by flying one near bison and over Yellowstone’s Midway Geyser Basin.
Drone makers say they have put safety measures in place to prevent accidents. All drones are recommended for use in large open areas, not near crowded spaces.
DJI said its latest drones have an automatically capped height of 400 feet, even though technically it could go up to 1,200 feet. Geosensors also won’t let the drones fly close to any major airports. Parrot also ensures drones do not go above 400 feet.
All three of the biggest personal drone makers – DJI, Parrot and 3D Robotics – have formed a coalition to lobby the FAA to help develop standards for personal drone use.