Google Wants Drones by 2017. Can FAA Act That Fast?
Google said last week that it hoped to begin delivering items by drone in 2017. The announcement was made at an air traffic control convention outside Washington, but the idea has been in the works at Google for a while:
In August of last year, the company officially announced that it was testing delivery drones in Queensland, Australia after The Atlantic published a report outlining the secretive program. A glimpse of one of the drones in action made its way onto the web in late October when a venture capitalist tweeted a short video from a Google event in Arizona.
What isn't clear is whether the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will be able to drum up some rules for use in time for Google to deliver anything. Although they've made an exeption for Amazon, the FAA's initial rules for private commercial use of drones seemed to make it difficult for innovation to blossom.
Nevertheless, engineers and business leaders say that you can't stop technology from developing on its own. For more watch, "Drone Boom: Why Drones Aren't Just for Dropping Bombs Anymore."
