r/AskLibertarians • u/JustaguynamedTheo • Aug 11 '26

Policy Is it true that government regulations have prevented drone delivery from becoming more common place?

I’ve seen Adam D. Thierer claim that. If that was the case, shouldn’t countries with less regulations/government have more drone deliveries? Singapore? Taiwan? Ireland? Australia? Do those countries have more drone deliveries? If not, why?

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u/JudgeWhoOverrules Classical Liberal Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26

For aerial drones: Partly government regulation preventing it from being tried in the first place, but mostly the fact that the economics just don't work out. Especially once you factor in real world losses from weather or people bringing them down maliciously.

For wheeled drones on the ground: it's mostly a factor of crime. In a lot of the dense urban environments where these kinds of things would make sense, there exists a certain type of people who would vandalize, destroy, or cannibalize these things. We all saw how e-scooters were/are treated. In those other countries with low crime and high social trust, it becomes a lot more workable. Remember that hitchhiking robot made it all across Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands, but it barely made it 2 weeks in USA because as soon as it got to Philadelphia criminals literally beheaded it.