43Inches
CASA and the like will just keep rules tight so that anyone breaching them and causing damage/injury will face the full weight of liability and it will all sort itself out. Pretty much how I see UBER going eventually. The scooter on sale is a liability minefield, providing a mode of injuring yourself that is not even legal on the roads, good luck to the owner of the resale shop.
I like your thinking, but I believe you are being way too optimistic in thinking CASA would have any hope of regulating small and large drones.
Consider this scenario: I have held an Amateur Radio Licence for VH (Australia) and P2 (PNG) for 54 years, permitting transmissions in various modes on a whole range of frequencies in the HF, VHF, UHF and SHF bands with up to 2 kilo-watts output. Prior to the 1970s, any illegal/non licensed transmissions on any frequency in Australia was generally tracked by the authorities and fairly rapidly shut down. Around the 1970s, a well known aviator imported shipping containers of a new product being a "Citizen Band" transceiver, which operated around 27 mHz (in the lower end of the Amateur 10 meter band) and sold these transceivers through his electrical shops. I greatly admire that aviator and his commercial enterprise in bringing these devices to Australia, which in very short time ended up in our nations trucking fleet and many private cars. Indeed, whilst CB radios were limited (from memory) to 5 watts output, it wasn't long before enterprising owners added an amplifier and a high gain Yagi antenna and had started chatting with similar enterprising CB owners around the world, the very thing the Australian authorities did not want - unlicensed and unauthorised international communications.
The law in Australia at that time imposed a fine up to $10,000 for transmitting a radio signal without holding an appropriate license. There was never any restriction on owning a radio transmitter and in time probably hundreds of thousands of CB transceivers were operating by unlicensed operators around Australia and the then licensing authority, the PMG, gave up trying to regulate them and indeed, transferred 27 MHz from the licensed Amateur 10 meter band to a public CB service. (Ultimately the current Licensing Authority, ACMA, "fixed" the problem of long range and international CB transmissions by moving the Citizens Band to 156.00 MHz to 162.05 MHz, thus reducing transmissions effectively to line of sight).
Like the CB tramscivers of old, I do not believe the importation of drones or licensing of buyers of e-bikes and e-scooters is in any way restricted. There are already far too many drones of varying sizes in Australia for CASA to have any hope of effectively regulating their use. There are already far too many e-bikes and e-scooters in Australia for the authorities to have any hope of controlling their use. And very recently I was told there is a very high number of un-registered dinghies powered by outboard motors exceeding 3 kW and Jetskis, some powered by 200 HP turbo charged engines operating in Australia by under age children and un-licensed drivers for the relevant authorities to have any hope of regulating their use. And having spent a number of years in "the Outback" I can testify to the fact there are a number of ultra light and small single engine aircraft out there, in farm sheds, which regularly take to the air, if only to collect the mail from mail boxes on large properties, or slip into town for a bit of shopping.
Tell me again how "
CASA and the like will just keep rules tight so that anyone breaching them and causing damage/injury will face the full weight of liability and it will all sort itself out" when drone numbers are already beyond CASA's control?"
Pretty much how I see UBER going eventually.
I actually think the opposite. Currently UBER and the other ride share operators are excluded from casual street hail and pick up of passengers. If history repeats itself, in the longer term UBER and others will slowly erode the taxi industry rights by sheer weight of numbers and eventually have similar rights to taxis, possibly spelling the end of the taxi industry.
I think Mr Proach's post starting this thread, may be a very accurate prediction of some time in the future.
Retailer responsibilities Retailers are accountable for injuries, harm, or damage that faulty products (they sell or supply) can and do cause. Particularly if they knew or should have known about the issue but did nothing to forewarn consumers.
I had a look at that site and its has no warnings about it being illegal for street use or laws governing its use in public.
The e-bikes and e-scooters are not faulty or defective. It is not illegal to have an e-bike with a 1 kW motors capable of speeds in excess of 25 KPH, it is only illegal to use it on a public road at excessive speed. No problems with the product, only that it's use is not being regulated. I had a look at my Toyota Prado user manual and the Toyota Dealers web site and could not find any warning about the risk of using the vehicle contrary to or exceeding the regulations.
We live in interesting times.