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Six Things You Need To Know About Amazon's Drones

Accepted submission by janrinok mailto:janrinok@soylentnews.org at 2014-07-11 12:52:36
Techonomics

janrinok writes:

There has been some talk recently regarding the use of drones for commercial purposes in the US — that is, until the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) placed restrictions on such usage. Amazon has asked for exemption from rules prohibiting the use of drones for commercial purposes, indicating that they are hoping to move ahead with their proposals to use drones to achieve thirty minute Prime Air deliveries [forbes.com]. They require the exemption to enable additional research and develop the concept further. However, many people are still unsure what exactly Amazon are proposing, so Forbes.com [forbes.com] have listed 6 things that they think you should know about the proposal:
  1. If the FAA grants Amazon an exemption, it does not mean Amazon drones will be flying down your street.
  2. Amazon claims their drone technology has advanced significantly in just five months.
  3. Amazon wants to innovate and knows that it can't under the FAA's burdensome regulatory regime.
  4. Amazon plans to self-regulate, with procedures that exceed current FAA rules for model aircraft.
  5. Amazon plans to use technology to keep their operations safe.
  6. If the FAA doesn't grant Amazon's request, the company will move their drone R&D operations outside of the U.S.

Of course, each of these points is discussed in more detail in the article.

Despite the 6 points, I still feel there we have a long way to go before drone technology can be used safely and sharing the same airspace as existing air traffic. For example, technology is used today in an attempt to keep all flights safe; I believe that is a little presumptuous of Amazon to think that they can achieve what has so far eluded thousands, if not millions, of hours of work into the problem by researchers around the globe. Nevertheless, research has to begin somewhere and Amazon seem to have the desire and funding to have a stab at it, so perhaps there is an argument for the FAA to consider Amazon's request for an exemption. What do you think?

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