Your Drone-Filled Future Will Be Arriving Shortly

I was at an event the other night attended by a lot of smart, technologically savvy people and I was astounded by how many people asked “But what are people actually using drones for?”

Everyone is quick to say “Drones are really hot right now. Definitely a good business to be in.” But that seemed to be where people’s knowledge stopped. I was less than a mile away from Harvard and MIT and, though everyone thought drones were “in” nobody seemed to know why. Everyone was aware Amazon wants to deliver packages by drone but that story seemed to be dismissed as science fiction “What are people actually using drones for?” Was the question everyone had.

Now, I realize these people aren’t DroneLife regulars or they would already know the answer to this question, but maybe this is the post that goes viral so I will try and answer the question with some recent developments in drone technology that demonstrate just how close we are to filling the skies with drones.

The first and most obvious story that needs visibility is kind of a big deal: Earlier this month, the first FAA approved drone delivery took place at Lonesome Pine Airport in Virginia.

Close up of Flirtey delivering in Virginia today! pic.twitter.com/7genpCweHF

— Flirtey (@Fly_Flirtey) July 17, 2015

Sure, this mission was selected due to its remote location, but it doesn’t detract from the fact that an autonomous flying vehicle successfully carried and delivered 4.5kg worth of medical supplies with minimal human intervention and under the watchful eye of the FAA.

That is a big deal. That changes the conversation from “Drones will deliver packages,” to “Drones are delivering packages.”

The other important story that contextualizes the popularity of drone technology is the recent NASA’s Unmanned Transportation Management Convention in California.

The Unmanned Transportation Management system is a project in development at NASA to create a literal highway in the sky for drones. We covered the UTM last summer when project head Parimal Kopardekar was still looking for partners.

This summer, NASA started flying drones for research purposes, held a conference with industry leaders to discuss and share strategies and findings and a demo session.

At the conference, Amazon -which has reportedly been scanning some employees’ backyards in preparation of running test deliveries– proposed to the FAA creating a segregated airspace specifically for low altitude commercial operations (i.e. delivery)

For those keeping track, it has been 20 months since Jeff Bezos went on 60 Minutes and demonstrated practical drone delivery to the world. At the time, even Amazon admitted it would take “a number of years” before Prime Air got off the ground and FAA regulations caught up.

But, in less than two years, the concept has been tested and proven.

Earlier this summer, Amazon’s VP of Global Public Policy, Paul Misener, told a Congressional hearing the company will have workable technology “by the time any regulation is ready.”

At the same hearing FAA Deputy Administrator Michael Whitaker told the committee, “The rule will be in place within a year… Hopefully before June 17, 2016.”

And that’s just in the U.S.!

Successful drone delivery flights have taken place in other countries around the world like Germany, Poland, Switzerland, and Bhutan.

 

Now, it would be naive to believe everyone will hit their deadlines but the point is this; the same people who didn’t know what drones can actually be used for will all agree that technology moves at the speed of light. And if we can all agree on that fact, we can all also agree drone delivery is going to be very real, very soon.