The FAA says it will shoot down your drone if you fly within 36 miles of the Super Bowl

By Ed Oswald Published February 4, 2016

The Federal Aviation Administration is taking a tough stance on drones at the Super Bowl this year: bring them, and we’ll shoot them down. The “no-drone-zone” spans much further than just the stadium itself too, extending out 36 miles from Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.

The no-fly zone encompasses nearly all of San Francisco to the north and west, Santa Cruz, Morgan Hill and Gilroy to the south, and San Jose and Pleasanton to the north and east.

Recommended Videos

Flight restrictions are in place from 2:00 PM through 11:59 PM local time on Sunday, and violators could face fines and prosecution for disobeying the order, officials say. The FAA also warns that drones could be subject to “deadly force” if it is considered a threat – although they did not specify how and by whom the restrictions would be enforced.

A YouTube video is now making the rounds of social media, telling attendees to “bring your lucky jersey, bring your face paint, bring your team spirit … but leave your drone at home.” The aim is to get the message out to as many people as possible, the FAA says.

A similar drone policy was in effect at last year’s Super Bowl in Phoenix, Arizona, although at that point the registration requirements for drone flying didn’t exist. Now the FAA expects to you to register your drone, so if you’re following the law it’s even less smart to do it – considering your drone now carries identifiable information on its owner.

While we’re making a big deal out of the no-drone zone here, the 36-mile restriction applies to manned aircraft as well, with even tighter restrictions in 10 mile radius according to the FAA website. Flights in these zones will need to have a flight plan on record, and the FAA recommends that pilots seek approval before entering the restricted airspace to avoid delays.

Super Bowl 50 takes place between the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos at 3:30pm on Sunday.

Topics

Contributor

For fifteen years, Ed has written about the latest and greatest in gadgets and technology trends. At Digital Trends, he's…

Cars

Range Rover’s first electric SUV has 48,000 pre-orders

Land Rover Range Rover Velar SVAutobiography Dynamic Edition

Range Rover, the brand made famous for its British-styled, luxury, all-terrain SUVs, is keen to show it means business about going electric.

And, according to the most recent investor presentation by parent company JLR, that’s all because Range Rover fans are showing the way. Not only was demand for Range Rover’s hybrid vehicles up 29% in the last six months, but customers are buying hybrids “as a stepping stone towards battery electric vehicles,” the company says.

Cars

BYD’s cheap EVs might remain out of Canada too

BYD Han

With Chinese-made electric vehicles facing stiff tariffs in both Europe and America, a stirring question for EV drivers has started to arise: Can the race to make EVs more affordable continue if the world leader is kept out of the race?

China’s BYD, recognized as a global leader in terms of affordability, had to backtrack on plans to reach the U.S. market after the Biden administration in May imposed 100% tariffs on EVs made in China.

Cars

Tesla posts exaggerate self-driving capacity, safety regulators say

Beta of Tesla's FSD in a car.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is concerned that Tesla’s use of social media and its website makes false promises about the automaker’s full-self driving (FSD) software.
The warning dates back from May, but was made public in an email to Tesla released on November 8.
The NHTSA opened an investigation in October into 2.4 million Tesla vehicles equipped with the FSD software, following three reported collisions and a fatal crash. The investigation centers on FSD’s ability to perform in “relatively common” reduced visibility conditions, such as sun glare, fog, and airborne dust.
In these instances, it appears that “the driver may not be aware that he or she is responsible” to make appropriate operational selections, or “fully understand” the nuances of the system, NHTSA said.
Meanwhile, “Tesla’s X (Twitter) account has reposted or endorsed postings that exhibit disengaged driver behavior,” Gregory Magno, the NHTSA’s vehicle defects chief investigator, wrote to Tesla in an email.
The postings, which included reposted YouTube videos, may encourage viewers to see FSD-supervised as a “Robotaxi” instead of a partially automated, driver-assist system that requires “persistent attention and intermittent intervention by the driver,” Magno said.
In one of a number of Tesla posts on X, the social media platform owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a driver was seen using FSD to reach a hospital while undergoing a heart attack. In another post, a driver said he had used FSD for a 50-minute ride home. Meanwhile, third-party comments on the posts promoted the advantages of using FSD while under the influence of alcohol or when tired, NHTSA said.
Tesla’s official website also promotes conflicting messaging on the capabilities of the FSD software, the regulator said.
NHTSA has requested that Tesla revisit its communications to ensure its messaging remains consistent with FSD’s approved instructions, namely that the software provides only a driver assist/support system requiring drivers to remain vigilant and maintain constant readiness to intervene in driving.
Tesla last month unveiled the Cybercab, an autonomous-driving EV with no steering wheel or pedals. The vehicle has been promoted as a robotaxi, a self-driving vehicle operated as part of a ride-paying service, such as the one already offered by Alphabet-owned Waymo.
But Tesla’s self-driving technology has remained under the scrutiny of regulators. FSD relies on multiple onboard cameras to feed machine-learning models that, in turn, help the car make decisions based on what it sees.
Meanwhile, Waymo’s technology relies on premapped roads, sensors, cameras, radar, and lidar (a laser-light radar), which might be very costly, but has met the approval of safety regulators.