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United Kingdom police records show risky drone incidents soaring

FireFlight UAS unmanned aerial vehicles TwinHawk, Scout, Flanker, and Hawkeye 400, are displayed on the tarmac during “Black Dart”, a live-fly, live fire demonstration of 55 unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, at Naval Base Ventura County Sea Range, Point Mugu, near Oxnard, California July 31, 2015. In another case, a caller expressed concern that someone was using a drone to spy in their bathroom window. London’s Metropolitan Police, meanwhile, has so far recorded 21 incidents in 2015, while previous year it received only one complaint. Concerned people also conveyed the use of drones with attached cameras near cash registers and children.

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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) may be fretting about the imminent launch of a million new drones this Christmas, but a report out of the United Kingdom this week highlights how the challenge posed by remotely controlled copters is a growing one faced by governments around the world.

In the United States, drones are causing more and more complications as well.

Engadget reports that two UAVs built by Google, code named the M2 and the B3, were registered with the FAA this month in the U.S. The M2 was listed on October 2nd, and the B3 was listed on October 7th.

Deep within Google, the company is working on two new drone concepts as part of something called Project Titan which, it says, will be used for internet access and surveying rather than delivery.

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The Guardian reported in August that Google had been side-stepping FAA regulation by flying over private land as part of a deal with NASA, but these new registrations indicate it’s ready to play by the books.

Drone iStock  Gregory_DUBUS