Don't you just hate when you're expecting to receive your monthly shipment of toilet paper via drone
and some rube with a gun shoots it down so you're stuck using your emergency stash
of cheap, scratchy, single ply? Okay, maybe this hasn't happened to you,
but why hasn't it happened to you? Amazon has been promising us drone delivery
since all the way back in 2013 when I was but a young graduate.
But here we are in 2022 when I'm old with children
and the skies don't exactly look like Coruscant on episode one.
Unsurprisingly, one big hurdle to mainstream drone delivery
is how, once again, the law isn't keeping up
with advancements in technology. Aviation is one of the most heavily regulated industries
on the planet and to be fair, it does make sense
as if we're gonna travel 500 miles per hour
in a glorified bus with wings like we do on a plane, we at least wanna feel fairly certain
we won't be turned into charred meatballs on landing.
But drones aren't exactly the same as commercial airliners.
I mean, they aren't carrying people yet.
But it wasn't until 2016 that the Federal Aviation
Administration in the United States passed rules specifically for drones, commonly referred to as Part 107.
Although Part 107 made the rules of the sky more straightforward for hobbyists,
it didn't do much to help businesses who wanted to deliver orders via drone.
Probably the most burdensome rule is that drone operators
have to keep their drones within their line of sight,
not exactly feasible for big companies like Amazon or Uber
who want to deliver lots of packages over fairly long distances.
Now, it does turn out that you don't have to fly under Part 107 rules.
But unfortunately, if you want to do long range package delivery in the US, you have to get FFA approval
under another set of rules called Part 135.
And that's a lengthy, onerous, bureaucratic, cough to ask process.
So most of the rules the FFA enforces are designed for traditional planes
that carry traditional people, not small drones carrying burritos or whatever.
And new rules have to be adopted that make more sense for delivery drones.
But to be fair to our government overlords, the FFA is working to streamline
the drone approval process and is also collaborating with private industry to create a dedicated
air traffic control system for unmanned drones.
But it could take years before this is all developed enough to allow large fleets of delivery drones
to take to the skies. Of course, the entire point of the rules
is to ensure that aircraft operates safely. And there are questions about that as well.
Hobby drones are really light, but package delivering drones like the 11 pounders
used by Google subsidiary Wing are quite a bit heavier.
And while you super strong people might think that 11 pounds isn't super heavy,
it would certainly pose a safety risk if something that weighs about as much
as a small dumbbell plummeted from the sky and hit you basically anywhere on your body.
Other delivery services will likely be using even heavier drones to deliver larger packages.
And while drones may never be required to meet the one critical incident
in one billion flight hours standard of commercial airliners,
they'll certainly need to meet more stringent requirements than they do now,
considering off the shelf drones can and do fail quite frequently.
And it isn't just about mechanical hardiness either. There's currently not much infrastructure in place
to control drone traffic or even ensure they won't run into each other or into other objects.
Animal attacks on flying drones have even happened.
But logistics aside, we can't discount the social part of the equation either.
While it would definitely be cool to have a drone bring you an emergency box of corn dogs at 3 a.m. in a matter of minutes,
do we really want a bunch of drones emitting that high-pitched buzzing noise
outside of our apartment Windows just level with your eye line at all hours of the night or day?
And how about ways to discourage theft? Porch pirates are already a problem.
So what might happen once the entire delivery process is unattended?
Wing has already offered assurances that their drones don't contain high-res cameras
in order to protect privacy, but could this embolden would be packaged thieves?
No one's watching. These are questions the industry will need to find answers to if they're going to run delivery services
that both make a profit and entice potential customers.
So we're definitely not saying drone delivery will never work.
Just give it a few years. Patience is a virtue,
even in the age of Amazon Prime. So thanks for watching, guys.
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