Santa Claus can breathe easy. Though Amazon.com wants to fill the air with package-delivering UAS, it’ll be years, if ever, before the jolly ol’ elf has to worry about competing with a sky full of automated bogeys, experts in the field of unmanned aircraft systems say.
Amazon chief executive Bezos talked optimistically about being able to use UAS to deliver packages weighing less than 5 pounds up to 10 miles within five years. That’s a stretch, says Philip Finnegan, director of corporate analysis for the Teal Group Corp., a Virginia-based company.
“This is basically a publicity stunt,” says Finnegan, who specializes in forecasting the future of the unmanned aircraft systems industry. “There are just huge obstacles to doing what Amazon says it is thinking about doing. Santa is safe.”
“We are nowhere near close to achieving or even in a position to even think about this,” says Finnegan, who is no bull when it comes to the future economic developments of unmanned aircraft systems, a market he sees worth more than $2 billion over the next decade. Finnegan, however, says in essence that the Amazon plan is a drone too far.
“On one hand, the FAA has still not opened up the airspace,” Finnegan says. “And the rules on the airspace are still being defined. But the technology is not there yet in terms of the reliability you need for (UAS) to do this. The trouble is, this is still a relatively new technology. It is still developing. It is going to take time for it to be as reliable as it needs to be to do that sort of delivery.”
USA Today wrote: “It was a masterful publicity coup by Bezos, long known for his media skills. There was absolutely no news peg for his announcement. You won’t be able to receive any goodies from Amazon by Drone Express anytime soon. But no matter. The net effect was that Amazon was on everyone’s lips on a day devoted to digital holiday shopping. Home run — for Bezos, anyway.”
However, Michael Toscano, president & CEO of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), took the announcement seriously and released the following statement on Amazon’s announcement of using Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) to deliver packages:
“Amazon’s plans to launch a ‘Prime Air’ delivery system demonstrate the promise of unmanned aircraft systems. It underscores how this innovative technology will transform the way industries operate and the importance of keeping UAS integration on track. Whether it is improving agriculture output, helping first responders, advancing scientific research, or making business more efficient, UAS are capable of saving time, saving money and most importantly, saving lives.
“While Amazon demonstrated that deliveries via UAS are technically feasible, the commercial use of UAS is currently prohibited in the United States. The FAA, however, is currently working to establish rules for commercial use. Even Amazon has acknowledged the regulatory framework needs to be in place before it can launch its service, and this is going to take until at least 2015. Like many other companies and industries, Amazon is testing UAS now so that it can be ready to recognize the benefits of the technology once UAS are fully integrated into the U.S. airspace in the coming years.
“The wider use of UAS will have a huge economic impact in the U.S. for both the public and commercial sectors. Our economic study released earlier this year found that the UAS industry will have an $82 billion economic impact and create more than 100,000 jobs in the first decade after integration.”
Photo: Imagine that. (@quantumpirate)
While Bezos got everyones attention the companies that are seriously working to introduce UAV’s/UAS or robotic aircraft into mainstream are companies like AgEagle who is focused on precision agricultural uses. When farmers can use aerial images to increase yields but at the same time reduce input costs everyone wins. Even the public wins because less chemicals are used that ends up in our waterways. While Bezos will some day be delivering packages via UAV’s, the real innovation occurring to mainstream UAS will occur in agriculture.