In the past few years, the number of drones buzzing around the airspace in the United States has grown significantly. The word “drone” simply means an unmanned aircraft system. As drone technology has advanced, many companies have expressed interest in them. Earlier this year, Amazon was revealed to be experimenting with them. Potentially, they could fly drones to customers' houses with packages they ordered. This would allow several things to happen. First, the customer would be able to receive ordered items within hours, rather than waiting days for them to be delivered. Second, Amazon would be able to cut costs. Although they would have to pay for the initial costs of the drones, they would no longer have to pay FedEx, UPS, or USPS to deliver packages all across the country. Delivery drones would drastically reduce shipping expenses. Lastly, customer satisfaction would likely skyrocket. Having a site where we could order items on demand and have them in our hands within an hour or two would be a great technological achievement. As with many technological advancements, there would be some downside. Amazon using drones would likely result in a significant loss of jobs. Many delivery workers would be put out of work.
Another company recently in the news related to drones is Facebook. Facebook recently posted over a dozen jobs looking for engineers to work on drones. They also acquired Ascenta which is a small aviation company from London. The team is a part of Facebook’s Connectivity Lab which is where the company is researching ways to bring internet to the two-thirds of the world's population who do not have access to the Internet.
Drones have also been in the news lately for almost crashing into planes. Many pilots are reporting encountering drones during their flights. In October alone, there were 41 reported drone sightings by pilots in the United States. No drones have been hit yet, but some planes have had to alter course in order to avoid hitting the drones. In the United States, the use of non-commercial drones is currently mostly unregulated. The FAA recently ruled that commercial drones are banned, therefore making Amazon’s plans impossible for the immediate future. People flying drones as a hobby are advised to avoid noise sensitive areas like schools, hospitals, and churches. Personal drones are supposed to be kept below 400 feet in order to avoid interference with other aircrafts. The FAA also stated that it expects people to fly their drones within visual line of sight. Drones have been becoming significantly more and more popular especially as a hobby for the younger generations (high school and college age). This has caused many states to look into new drone laws and regulations but they are unsure of how to best go about them. Currently it is near impossible to enforce any regulations on drones. There is no way to forcibly impose rules and hold drone owners responsible, since it is very difficult to track down a drone in the air's owner on the ground.
Sources:
http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/26/technology/drones-planes/index.html
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