Zkitszo - The Real
May 21, 2026

Drone? Drone!

Not even three years from now. Mark your calendars.

Calendar event, titled "Drones Fill the Skies — Told Ya So": Not even three years have passed and, just like predicted, we look up and see lines of drones spread across the sky. They travel from point A to Z efficiently, like our cardiovascular system — the main arteries carry the heaviest traffic, and every so often one or two or many split off to take a more detailed route to their final destination. Obstacle avoidance and AI are highly advanced now; the UAVs fly mere centimetres apart, every trajectory correction already communicated through the swarm. Mostly delivery: dropping off the snacks you ordered for a sunny-day picnic, or the last-minute supply you needed to finish a project. Sprinkled in between — not yet open to the masses, still tangled in regulatory red tape — you might spot the odd aerial vehicle carrying humans. Maybe a trial taxi / Uber-style service, gathering data toward a full rollout. A service like that would shave huge chunks off a commute. No more sitting in traffic for hours, no more steering with your knees while you contort to catch the mirror for a morning-commute shave. Give it a few more years — not many — and the skies will be full of these drone highways.

Right now, what we get is that one drone hovering overhead, drifting awkwardly with a sharp jerk every so often, until it disappears for a landing because the battery's dead. Online, or in more controlled spots, we watch the dramatic runs of FPV pilots — first person view. Once in a while out in the wild a "tiny whoop" zips past you; look around and you'll spot the owner on a bench with their goggles on.

To most people these are a moment in time — a passing thought, gone in a second. Except for that one drone that shows up over your property every other day. It's a daily thing now, and it's become a nuisance. Or maybe you run security at a big venue and would rather not have aerial visitors — who knows what they're up to.

Identify that drone

The device I've been looking at for this is the Electronic Cats Minino — it'll scan, spoof, and explore DroneID. DroneID is the broadcast a lot of drones put out, and with the right receiver you can pull a long/lat straight out of the air.

The Minino wiki walks through the DroneID feature and shows a long/lat example of what you actually get back. There's also a video going over the whole process if you'd rather watch it than read it.

If you don't want to buy hardware to get your feet wet, there's the OpenDroneID OSM Android app — it listens for DroneID broadcasts and plots them on a map right on your phone.

Going deeper

For anyone who wants to get into the weeds on how this is actually specified, here's the reading. RFC 9575 is the DRIP (Drone Remote ID Protocol) spec, and there's the IETF crowd-sourced Remote ID draft on top of it. I'll leave those here for the deep divers.

Sources

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