California Drone Bill, Fought by Tech Groups, Moves to Governor's Desk

A California bill that would curtail the flight patterns of drones — legislation that several big Silicon Valley players, including GoPro and advocacy groups repping Amazon and Google, are feverishly opposing — moved closer to becoming law on Thursday. The bill passed in the state Senate by a vote of 21-10.

The bill won approval in the state Assembly on Monday and now heads to the desk of Democratic governor Jerry Brown.

Its language creates a “no-fly” zone for unmanned aerial vehicles, forbidding them from flying below 350 feet without express permission of the property owners below.

The bill’s sponsor, State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, frames it as a necessary step in developing privacy rights around the fledgling technology. Tech groups disagree, claiming the legislation is draconian and undercuts the nascent industry, which is set to expand from recreational sales to broader use cases, like delivery.

“This bill is a balanced approach that will allow the commercial use of drones, should that one day become an option, while keeping our important rights to privacy and private property intact,” Jackson said in a statement.

The Consumer Electronics Association and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, tech groups opposing the bill in Sacramento, condemned its passage in a statement. “SB 142 may look like a privacy bill, but it would open the door to a new class of frivolous lawsuits in California and create inconsistencies with federal law. Drones hold the power to create new businesses, improve our lives and transform the way we do business.”

The CEA has estimated that the drone industry will generate $14 billion in California over the next decade.

Update: An earlier version of this story attributed the quote from CEA to Brian Wynne. Wynne is president and CEO of Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International. He released the statement jointly with CEA president Gary Shapiro. We regret the error.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple of big issues with relying on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on:

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. And we can’t do that if we have a paywall.

So even though advertising is still our biggest source of revenue, we also seek grants and reader support. (And no matter how our work is funded, we have strict guidelines on editorial independence.)

If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today? Any amount helps.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via