Amazon Prime Air sparks Senate hearing to explore commercial drones

Stream:

News Bot

Your News Bitch
3,282
0
0
0
Console: Headset:
News By Russell Holly Dec. 3, 2013 2:02 pm
The announcement of Amazon Prime Air as a concept caused more than a little excitement, and less than a day later it looks like the wheels are in motion to address what now seems more like an eventuality than a maybe.
There’s a lot of emotion tied to drones right now, and with good reason. It probably wasn’t the best idea to lump toys, robots, and vehicles of mass destruction all into the same name, but here we are. Drones are going to have mixed labels attached to them for a while, so why not look at them for commercial use right?
Amazon’s impressive plan to try and get the US government to allow them to use unmanned flying robots as a delivery mechanism for small objects has not gone unnoticed. In fact, it looks like there’s already a Senate hearing and a competitor in the works for early next year.
Earlier today it was reported that UPS has been researching a safe way to accomplish something very similar to Amazon. They want to use drones to deliver certain kinds of items, but they are also well aware of the problems involved in actually deploying such a delivery mechanism.
There are so many problems, especially when it comes to the actual landing and delivery of an object, that Amazon’s pretty video didn’t actually address. There needs to be a plan for kids playing in the yard, for navigating unexpected holiday decorations or other obstacles, and something needs to be said about what happens when your crazy neighbor shoots one out of the air with his extra strength foil hat on.
In order to address those and many other issues, the Senate is looking to get involved.
Senator Jay Rockefeller, chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, has already said that he’s looking at holding a hearing early next year to address the idea of commercial drones being used inside of US airspace. This is an important part of the process, especially as more companies decide they can offer their own deliver service.
Regulation is necessary in order to avoid a massive rush of flying machines in the skies, especially when it comes to making sure those companies aren’t grabbing information they shouldn’t be allowed to grab during the flight. Besides, you wouldn’t want your pizza delivery drone, your Amazon drone, and your personal AR.Drone accidentally colliding in your front yard. What a mess that would be.
Now read: Photorealistic Morgan Freeman finger painting created on an iPad



More...