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Look up! Drones and the Future of Transporting Goods

Last March, CBS’s flagship news program “60 Minutes” reported that Amazon was testing a pilot program that would deliver products to customers’ doorsteps within an hour of being ordered. Sound ludicrous? CEO Jeff Bezos is already toying around with the idea, and per CBS’s report, the ambitious plan could be available to customers in as soon as four to five years, pending further safety testing and Federal Aviation Administration approvals.

These types of aerial wonders are making their way into everyday conversation, as the word drone has become somewhat of a household name. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have risen to notoriety in the past five years due to their military use in the Middle East, but the consumerization of drones may be coming sooner than we think.

In fact, USA Today recently reported the FAA named six cities across the country that will host research and development of drone flight testing. The test sites include:

  • The University of Alaska: The University plans to work on state monitoring, navigation and safety standards.
  • Nevada: The state will be used as a test site because of its arid climate. Nevada will study how air-traffic control procedures will evolve to handle drones.
  • Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi: The university will develop safety systems for drones.
  • Griffiss International Airport, New York: This site will focus research on collision prevention between passenger jets and drones and how they will avoid one another, particularly in a congested East Coast airspace.
  • North Dakota Department of Commerce: The government entity will develop air worthiness data and legitimize communication between pilots and drones.
  • Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University: Locations in both Virginia and New Jersey will test technical risks and potential failures for UAVs to ensure safer landings.

The overall goal of these sites is to determine whether private enterprise or other public offices will be able to use this technology without crashing the UAVs into other planes or residential areas. The drone transportation industry could be worth billions of dollars, and Congress is hoping domestic drones will be sharing the skies with passenger planes by the end of next year.

What stands in the way?

However, similar to Amazon’s current challenges, federal approvals, privacy concerns and other technical hurdles remain prevalent roadblocks in the UAV-transportation industry. Certainly, the ongoing testing of drone-based transportation will likely impact the chronology of when consumers will regularly see drones in the sky. Lawmakers are also concerned that drones may threaten personal privacy, and safe flying guidelines still need to be developed.

However, researchers are finding unique and helpful ways to aid the transportation industry in more ways than one. For instance, the Michigan Tech Research Institute is currently viewing drones through this lens by helping the U.S. Department of Transportation develop low-cost, high-efficient means of cartography. According to its website, the MTRI is aiding the DOT’s Research and Innovation Technology Administration by using UAVs to test tasks such as mapping the condition of unpaved roads and evaluating traffic jams from above.

While drones come with their concerns, they may have the capability to connect large groups of people in short periods of time. Technology industry magazine New Scientist recently spoke with Matternet CEO Andreas Raptopoulos about the potential impact drones could have in the transportation industry. Raptopoulos believes UAVs could change product transportation for the better. In some areas of the world, people don’t have access to reliable roads, which in turn cuts them off from adequate nourishment and medicine, he argued. The use of drones could deliver necessary treatment to those in need, as well as connect different groups of people while saving money and resources by not building roads. Logistics in less-developed nations could drastically benefit from drone transportation.

Do you believe that these drones can change the transportation industry for the better? Or will privacy, air traffic concerns, and other technical hurdles halt a drone revolution? 

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