It’s also not necessary for the technology,” Ellman says about the current rules. Because of safety concerns, getting these waivers approved can take a long time, according to the FAA, which says it has approved 162 thus far. As of the end of October, there were six additional companies in the queue, including Zipline, according to the FAA.īut a major hurdle still remains: Without a waiver, drones can’t be operated out of sight-meaning that at least one human must have an eye on the drone during its entire flight. Only UPS, Alphabet’s Wing, and, most recently, Amazon have been granted the full certification. Then earlier this year it created a new certification that lets commercial pilots fly drones at night and over people’s heads without first receiving a waiver. In 2016 it clarified how companies can use drones. “They’re all regulated in the same way,” she says. FAA regulations were created with large passenger jets in mind-not five-pound unmanned drones. “In some ways it’s like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole,” says Lisa Ellman, executive director of the Commercial Drone Alliance, a drone policy and advocacy organization. The problem is that Federal Aviation Administration regulations weren’t written for drones. Though drones have disrupted wildlife, and a series of crashes raised questions about their safety, current debate lies in how, not whether, to allow drones in U.S. Meanwhile, Alphabet, through its subsidiary Wing, is setting up a drone port in a Walgreens parking lot in Dallas to deliver orders to the nearby towns of Frisco and Little Elm. UPS is ferrying health care supplies from Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist’s central lab and pharmacy in Winston-Salem, N.C., to nearby facilities, and it’s delivering prescription medication via drone to a retirement community in Florida. Since then, drones have transported Domino’s pizzas, Chipotle burritos, and 7-Eleven Slurpees. It was Australian startup Flirtey that made the first federally approved drone delivery a quadcopter flew just over six minutes roundtrip to deliver medicine in Virginia. Yet the wait continues.Īs for gifts being delivered by drone during the current busy holiday shopping season, forget about it.ĭrone package deliveries started to take off-literally-on July 17, 2015, more than one and a half years after Amazon’s initial drone announcement. And since the COVID pandemic began, demand for contactless delivery has only increased-including for medical supplies. The technology is ready to go, drone companies say. Zipline, Google parent Alphabet, UPS, and Amazon have made thousands of flights. airspace regulation has, apart from small tests, kept most drones grounded. Eight years after Jeff Bezos stunned the world by announcing that Amazon shoppers would eventually get their packages delivered by drone a mere 30 minutes after ordering, U.S. For now, Zipline is flying its drones in Pea Ridge only during good weather.Ĭompanies seeking federal approval for drone deliveries have faced major turbulence. And Britton tells me the drone-despite being able to withstand rain along with high winds and extreme temperatures-is grounded. The screen shows the routes of the project’s first deliveries, which began in mid-November to a handful of Walmart employees. “Our very first customer is right there,” says Evan Britton, flight operations lead for Zipline, the drone company overseeing the distribution site for Walmart, pointing to a wall monitor. When it reaches the intended customer’s home, the drone is supposed to hover, open a door in its fuselage, and drop a blue box tethered to a parachute so it can glide gently to the ground. A drone pilot is running through a flight check for one of the aircraft, which resembles an airplane, but with only an 11-foot wingspan. There’s a mini airport in that location’s back parking lot, where a fleet of five drones will take off and land, ferrying prescription pills, vitamins, and COVID-19 tests to customers up to 50 miles away. Behind its store in tiny Pea Ridge, Ark., Walmart is experimenting with the future.
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