White House: Google will start testing delivery drones in the US

Alphabet will kick off a research study for Project Wing at a Federal Aviation Administration test site “to help regulators answer critical safety and human factors questions” for drone deliveries, the White House said in a statement.

The Workshop on Drones and the Future of Aviation expanded on the June announcement of national guidelines on the non-recreational use of small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).

“This is an industry that’s moving at the speed of Silicon Valley”, he said.

Additionally, the White House announced that the company Flirtey – which recently partnered with 7-Eleven to demonstrate the drone delivery of a Slurpee – is partnering with the nonprofit International Medical Corps to advance the humanitarian applications for drones.

FAA administrator Michael Huerta said that the goal to set in place rules by the end of the year is a lofty one, but it’s not impossible. Unfortunately for the tech giants, the Federal Aviation Administration does not now allow drones in the United States to operate without a human pilot or beyond that pilot’s line of sight.

Huerta said the government has registered more than 500,000 hobby drones in eight months, but sees a need for more rules for commercial operators. This rule states that commercial users must fly their UAVs, which must weigh less than 55 pounds, in sparse areas at a height no greater than 400 feet.

The White House says the commercial drone industry is expected to generate upwards of $82 billion for the USA economy and as many as 100,000 new jobs by 2025. The Department of Interior, which maintains a fleet of drones with the Forest Service, plans to create a training progrmame of UAS in search and rescue operations by October 2018.

Drones can change how filmmakers shoot movies and conduct examinations of the country’s infrastructure, such as train tracks and pipelines.

That includes having the National Science Foundation (NSF) spend $35 million in the next five years to figure out how to design, control, and apply drones for things like smart disaster response, agricultural monitoring, and the study of severe storms.

“Some people have called the birth of unmanned aircraft the Wright brothers moment of our time”, Huerta said.

As the world’s largest online retailer, Amazon raised eyebrows in late 2013 with its plan to airlift small parcels to customers by drone in select markets, less than 30 minutes after an order is received. Warner. “Today’s announcement is another important step forward in realizing the enormous potential of unmanned aerial systems, and will help speed up our development and adoption of this technology, which still lags behind other countries”.