The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released new rules last week outlining how businesses may use unmanned aerial vehicles, otherwise known as drones.
While the rules have been loosened a bit for commercial drone use, drawing praise from one industry association, the barriers for using drones for parcel deliveries remains to the point where even testing is almost still almost impossible.
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| The government said it lacks data on the safety of flying drones outside the line-of-sight of the pilot, though it said operators could apply for a waiver on a case-by-case basis. |
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Until now, commercial use of drones was only permitted by the FAA if the business received a waiver. The FAA had issued thousands of these waivers, with thousands more still pending, but it's likely many businesses have been using or testing drones under the radar.
According to the new rules, which will go into effect in August, operators can be as young as 16 and will be allowed to fly drones as long as they weigh less than 55 pounds.
Prior to this change, anyone operating a commercial drone had to have a pilot's license for manned aircrafts. Now, the FAA will issue an exam for those looking to become certified as commercial drone operators. The administration will also require operators to register their drones on-line.
Flight is permitted during the day, and if the drone is equipped with anti-collision lights, it can be flown during twilight. Special waivers will be required for night time flights.
An industry advocacy group, the Drone Manufacturers Alliance, praised the new rules in a
statement.
"We are extremely pleased the rule establishes a risk-based, federal approach for operating drones nationwide, and thank the FAA for engaging industry throughout the process," it said. "We believe the rule will enhance safety and compliance, and allow a spectrum of industries to utilize drones to save lives, time and expense."
Not Good News for Amazon, Others
Despite that bullish statement from the Drone alliance, the new rules are of little help for Amazon, Google and others that want to test drones for parcel deliveries.
The government said it is comfortable with companies using drones for inspecting crops, search and rescue, aerial photography and other infrastructure inspection. But when it comes to deliveries, the Obama administration said drones are only clear for takeoff in a very limited set of circumstances.
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 The combined drone and package still has to weigh less than 55 pounds, which might have some limiting effect. But the real issues are the FAA's maintaining existing rules that drones cannot fly over anyone not involved in the transaction or test and cannot fly out of sight of the pilot.
Of course, the famous drone video Amazon showed during a 60 Minutes television broadcast of one of its drones dropping off a parcel to the back of someone's home had clearly gone far out of range of a pilot's sight. It seems most likely Amazon envisions a future when there are no pilots involved at all.
The government said last week that Amazon had taken particular issue with its requirement to have one pilot for each drone. "Amazon asserted that the proposed restriction is based on the flawed premises that small UAS [unmanned aircraft systems] must be operated under constant manual control," the FAA's filing said.
The government said Google, meanwhile, argued for the ability to "present a safety case" for instances where they want to be able to fly drones over "non-participants."
Interestingly, there is also a union angle to this. The Teamsters union, whose membership of course includes largely truck drivers, including those at UPS, has lobbied against letting pilots control fleets of multiple drones, "until there is technological certainty that no workers, or the general public, would be at risk from automated package delivery", the government said.
The government said it lacks data on the safety of flying drones outside the line-of-sight of the pilot, though it said operators could apply for a waiver on a case-by-case basis, through a web portal it has yet to build.
There is certainly some risk here that Amazon and others will take their drone research, as they have already done, to India, Australia, even the UK and other nations that have more liberal testing rules. Those nations could also ultimately permit drone deliveries, which if proven successful and safe would in turn put lots of pressure on US regulators to relax the rules here.
As with autonomous cars and trucks, the technology for drones is likely to advance well ahead of the regulations.
Should the US be more liberal with its rules for commercial drones? When if ever do you think we will see parcel deliveries? Let us know your thoughts at the Feedback section below.
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