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from the prospective-drone-pilots-are-looking-up dept.
Hot-air balloon pilot Richard Varney typically spends his weekends transporting tourists around central Massachusetts in a huge, multicolored balloon. But on a recent Sunday, Varney drove to a local community college and learned to fly a different type of aerial vehicle. "I want to try something new," he said as he watched an instructor demonstrate how to steer a $2,000 drone equipped with a camera. "This could help me launch a side business taking aerial photos of local towns."
Varney isn't the only one betting on this as a new vocation. At least 15 community colleges across the country now have courses that teach people how to pilot drones, according to research conducted by MIT Technology Review. The trend accelerated over the past year, after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a rule that requires people who operate drones commercially to take a test and get certified as "remote pilots."
Some four-year colleges and private companies are also training people to be drone pilots, but the community-college programs are particularly interesting because they attract diverse types of students, including adults looking to change careers. In fact, many community colleges offer drone classes through their "workforce development" and "workforce solutions" departments, which are designed to impart practical skills that people can apply immediately to their jobs or use to get new jobs, rather than conferring credits toward a college degree.
No career prospects for drone pilots in private detective agencies or reality pr0n either?
(Score: 2) by edIII on Friday October 06 2017, @02:08AM
Machine AI will end up doing it better. It will be something that doesn't sleep, cannot get tired, and will be as functional in minute 100,000 as minute 1. I'm not worried about it screwing up since it seems that the nature of Machine AI is that each is just a little bit unique. It depends on its training sets, experience, feedback, etc. Since they can easily multi-task much better than a human, there will not be an action taken without multiple units requiring consensus.
Air Traffic control will not be for safety purposes, but bureaucracy. There is already swarm AI, and the AI in contemporary flight systems is itself about avoiding collisions, staying on course, and/or hovering in place. It's entirely possible that in congested flight paths that the drones will work it out by themselves. Distributed information when entering an area where flight paths cross, or hubs. If the flight paths are all going to be registered online with the government, then that means the air traffic control is really making sure that none of the flight plans result in collisions. The drone is fine before it even starts out. Layer on methods to avoid collisions and reduce congestion.
Human drone operators? I give it 10 years before manual drone operation is all but outlawed for anything but line of sight with kiddie toys. Making a living off it? LOL. I don't think the big boys are imagining tens of thousands of workers, but are instead imagining their investments, acquisitions, and research projects pay off and obviate the need for most workers.
The Air Force didn't need pilots after Skynet operated with a perfect record remember? :)
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.