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Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios,

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Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tex Stuff.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with

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Speaker 1: How Stuff Works and I heart radio and I love

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Speaker 1: all things tech. And On April twenty third, two thousand nineteen,

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg reported that Wing Aviation l C, which is a

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Speaker 1: company under Alphabet that's the same parent company that Google

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Speaker 1: belongs to, had received f A A approval for air

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Speaker 1: carrier certification. This was important news because Wing is in

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Speaker 1: the drone business with the goal of making drone deliveries

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Speaker 1: a reality. In other words, deliveries made by drone, not

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Speaker 1: deliveries of drones to people, and this is a goal

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Speaker 1: to make it a reality in the United States. So

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Speaker 1: today I thought I would talk about drones and the

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Speaker 1: laws and regular elations for drone operations in the United

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Speaker 1: States in particular, and a little bit about other places

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Speaker 1: as well, and why this certification was a necessary step

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Speaker 1: for Wings plans to come to fruition. First, I think

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Speaker 1: it might be good to define some terms. See the

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Speaker 1: word drone is a bit vague. In the broad sense.

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Speaker 1: We tend to think of drones as unmanned aircraft or

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Speaker 1: unmanned aerial vehicles u a v s. They can range

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Speaker 1: from something that can land on the palm of your

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Speaker 1: hand to something that if it landed on you would

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Speaker 1: give you the Wicked Witch of the East treatment because

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Speaker 1: you'd get squished, because they can get real big. But

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Speaker 1: the technical definition for a drone, or at least a

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Speaker 1: a modern definition for a drone is that it is

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Speaker 1: an unmanned, fixed wing or multi rotor aircraft and it

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Speaker 1: might draw power through fuel combustion engine or through batteries,

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Speaker 1: and for consumer drones, the battery option is by far

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Speaker 1: the most common, but typically when we use the word drone,

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Speaker 1: we're thinking of multi rotor unmanned aircraft, and frequently there

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Speaker 1: are ones that we pilot using a remote control system.

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Speaker 1: The most common version you tend to see in the

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Speaker 1: consumer market is the quad copter form factor, where you

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Speaker 1: have a set of rotors at what would be the

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Speaker 1: four corners of the drone, and it helps produce stability.

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Speaker 1: These systems are are pretty phenomenal works of technology. Microchips

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Speaker 1: and sensors work to keep the drones nice and stable.

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Speaker 1: They can make fine tuned adjustments to operations and that

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Speaker 1: helps keep the drones in air. So some drone drones

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Speaker 1: will allow pilots to actually kind of tweak those settings

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Speaker 1: and give a little more control over to human operators.

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Speaker 1: But to make drones appealing to the masses, it was

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Speaker 1: imperative to create hardware and software that would allow the

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Speaker 1: average person to fly one around without having to monitor

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Speaker 1: a dozen different variables at once. If you start seeing

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Speaker 1: the back right corner and go down, then you're adjusting

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Speaker 1: for that. You might overcorrect and next thing you know,

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Speaker 1: your drones flipping out. So the technology got to the

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Speaker 1: point where that wasn't necessary, where that could be automated. Now.

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Speaker 1: I've done episodes about drone technology in the past, including

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Speaker 1: talking about how DARPA was very much involved with drones,

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Speaker 1: particularly during the Vietnam War, but I'm not going to

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Speaker 1: spend a whole lot of time doing that here. I

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Speaker 1: just want to touch on the fact that companies have

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Speaker 1: developed the technology to a point that allows anyone with

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Speaker 1: a little patients to operate a drone fairly easily. And

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Speaker 1: doing so safely and responsibly is another matter, and that's

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Speaker 1: where regulations will come in. Now. To understand the evolution

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Speaker 1: of regulations It's also important to have a quick overview

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Speaker 1: of drone history because this is another one of those

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Speaker 1: examples where technology develops faster than governments can handle. Now,

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Speaker 1: technically the term drone has been used to describe any

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Speaker 1: unmanned aerial vehicle in the past. The actual term would

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Speaker 1: start to come up probably I think it's more or

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Speaker 1: less like the World War One era, but we've used

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Speaker 1: the word to apply to things even older than that.

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Speaker 1: That includes balloons, which represent the earliest drones. Again, we

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Speaker 1: didn't call them that at the time, but that's what

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Speaker 1: we'd call him now. As early as eighteen forty nine,

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Speaker 1: militaries were experimenting with unmanned balloons as explosive delivery systems

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Speaker 1: or bombers, so they're using balloons to bomb targets. The

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Speaker 1: Austrian military use such bomb carrying balloons against the city

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Speaker 1: of Venice. At the time, Austria was controlling much of

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Speaker 1: the surrounding area and they were laying siege to the city.

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Speaker 1: The bombs had timed fuses that were cut to a

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Speaker 1: length that would give the balloon enough time to reach

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Speaker 1: its target before exploding, and it was mostly based off

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Speaker 1: environmental conditions at the time. So you'd say, based on

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Speaker 1: the direction of the wind and its speed, we calculate

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Speaker 1: that it will take x number of minutes to get

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Speaker 1: to where we want to go, so we'll cut the

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Speaker 1: fuse to this link. Now, some of the bombs did

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Speaker 1: have a pesky habit of blowing back toward the Austrians,

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Speaker 1: and that was not ideal. The Venetians would surrender to

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Speaker 1: the Austrians a couple of days after those attacks, but

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Speaker 1: the lack of control over the balloons and flight was

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Speaker 1: a big reason that other countries did not immediately jump

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Speaker 1: on board and employ the same strategy. The first fixed

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Speaker 1: wing pilotless drone recorded in history was probably the Rustin

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Speaker 1: Proctor aerial target, which was developed in nineteen sixteen. That's

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Speaker 1: just sixteen years after the Right Brothers had a successful

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Speaker 1: demonstration of heavier than air fixed wing aircraft at Kittie Hawk. Now,

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Speaker 1: there are a lot of sites that have information about

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Speaker 1: this particular automated aircraft, well not even automated, it's not automated,

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Speaker 1: but remote controlled radio control aircraft. But they all used

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Speaker 1: suspiciously similar wording in those articles. So in other words,

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Speaker 1: I think they're all either working from the exact same

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Speaker 1: source material which is being kind might just be copying

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Speaker 1: each other. Suffice it to say, the aerial target relied

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Speaker 1: on simplistic radio controls. In fact, calling it a remote

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Speaker 1: control is probably being way too generous. Uh. And it

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Speaker 1: was intended to be used like a flying bomb, but

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Speaker 1: it was never actually used in combat. The realities of

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Speaker 1: World War One gave countries a lot of incentives to

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Speaker 1: develop drones. Being able to attack an opponent without putting

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Speaker 1: the lives of your own soldiers in danger was obviously

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Speaker 1: a goal for everybody. The designs in World War One

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Speaker 1: really led more to the development of cruise missiles than

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Speaker 1: the evolution of the end landed aerial vehicle or ua V. Now,

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Speaker 1: between the two World Wars, countries began to experiment with

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Speaker 1: various unmanned aerial vehicles as targets, much as the aerial

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Speaker 1: target name had suggested. So you would have pilots in

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Speaker 1: manned aircraft practicing their their firing, practicing their their targeting

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Speaker 1: on these aerial target it's that were unmanned. There was

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Speaker 1: no fear of endangering another pilot because there's no pilot

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Speaker 1: in the enemy aircraft, and it gave pilots a chance

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Speaker 1: to hone their skills without putting other people in danger,

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Speaker 1: so it became a training method. These aerial targets were

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Speaker 1: typically made through converting full sized aircraft UH into radio

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Speaker 1: controlled aircraft, rather than building something specifically for the purposes

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Speaker 1: of being an unmanned vehicle from the first place. Now,

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Speaker 1: according to at least one story, this is where the

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Speaker 1: word drone actually came from. It was applied to a

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Speaker 1: ua V called the d H point eight to B

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Speaker 1: also known as the Queen B. And UH they started

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Speaker 1: using the drone to describe this particular aircraft, and then

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Speaker 1: later they used it to describe any aerial target, and

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Speaker 1: later still to refer to any remotely controlled unmanned aerial vehicle.

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Speaker 1: And that's where we got the word drone, at least

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Speaker 1: according to a lot of sites I found on the internet. UH,

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Speaker 1: I am not confident that that is the correct answer,

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Speaker 1: but we're gonna go with it because it was the

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Speaker 1: one one I found consensus on. Now I'm gonna switch

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Speaker 1: gears a bit and talk about a dude called Reginald

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Speaker 1: Denny who was an English actor who immigrated to America

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Speaker 1: to seek fame and fortune in Hollywood. And he would

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Speaker 1: do that He acted in dozens of roles, though I

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Speaker 1: think I've only ever seen him in two movies. He

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Speaker 1: was in the nineteen sixty six version of Batman Some

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Speaker 1: Days you just can't get rid of a bomb. And

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Speaker 1: he was also a bad guy in the Western comedy

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Speaker 1: film Cat Balou, which holds a near and dear place

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Speaker 1: to my heart. Anyway, he had another interest besides acting,

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Speaker 1: and that was of remote control airplanes. He had been

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Speaker 1: in the Royal Flying Corps the RFC in Britain during

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Speaker 1: World War One, and he had performed as a stunt

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Speaker 1: pilot after that. So when he came to America, he

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Speaker 1: created a company called Reginald Denny Industries, and and he

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Speaker 1: started to design and build remote controlled aircraft, and he

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Speaker 1: did some for the military, but he also did other

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Speaker 1: ones for hobbyists and amateur pilots. He's widely cited as

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Speaker 1: the first person to create a model plane business, a

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Speaker 1: radio control model plane business. I should add because there

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Speaker 1: were other businesses that made model planes. It's just they

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Speaker 1: were either gliders, or they were just models that weren't

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Speaker 1: meant to fly at all, or they were tethered, so

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Speaker 1: they would you would tie them to an anchor point

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Speaker 1: and they would just fly in circles. Oh and one

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Speaker 1: other bit of trivia. Another famous person in Hollywood got

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Speaker 1: her start as an assembler in one of Denny's manufacturing facilities.

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Speaker 1: That actress's name was Norma Gene Mortenson, but she's better

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Speaker 1: known by her stage name Marilyn Monroe. While Denny was

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Speaker 1: catering to a small and fairly wealthy clientele of r

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Speaker 1: C pilots, it would take the development of the transistor

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Speaker 1: and making the transistor cheap and to produce to really

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Speaker 1: give the hobbyist community a big boost. And that happened

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Speaker 1: in the nineteen sixties, and it allowed manufacturers to make

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Speaker 1: much smaller radio controlled components for aircraft and also meant

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Speaker 1: that the aircraft themselves could be smaller. So soon dozens

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Speaker 1: of companies were producing different types of aircraft, often in

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Speaker 1: kit form, which means you would go out and buy

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Speaker 1: the kit and you would assemble the aircraft at home.

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Speaker 1: Now I should add that there had been model aeroplane

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Speaker 1: associations and competitions since before Denny had even created his business,

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Speaker 1: but those were essentially free form competitions in which the

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Speaker 1: aircraft is not controlled during flight. So a glider is

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Speaker 1: an example. Or aircraft that uses a rubber band to

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Speaker 1: store and then unleash energy. Uh, that was another example.

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Speaker 1: Or they were the tethered version before radio control really

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Speaker 1: came on the scene in the nineteen sixties. As the

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Speaker 1: transistor was taking shape, so was the concept of aircraft

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Speaker 1: regulations in the US. And I'm talking about full sized

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Speaker 1: aircraft regulations UM and manned aircraft as well. In ninety eight,

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Speaker 1: the United States formed the Federal Aviation Administration. Originally it's

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Speaker 1: called the Federal Aviation Agency. Either way, it was called

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Speaker 1: the f a A still is to this day the

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Speaker 1: f a A. And the purpose of it was to

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Speaker 1: oversee the development and enforcement of regulations for aircraft. And

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Speaker 1: there had been several fatal accidents that involved aircraft over

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Speaker 1: the previous decades, some of those involving high profile people,

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Speaker 1: including a US senator in nineteen thirty five. Now, previously,

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Speaker 1: the Department of Commerce had been charged with administering and

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Speaker 1: regulating the use of aircraft, but technology was progressing quickly,

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Speaker 1: and as air travel and cargo transportation became more accessible,

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Speaker 1: the country began to rely rely upon air travel much

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Speaker 1: more heavily, and that led to the need to create

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Speaker 1: a new government agency to oversee everything. Senator A. S.

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Speaker 1: Mike Munroney from Oklahoma introduced a bill to create the

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Speaker 1: f a A and it had the mission to provide

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Speaker 1: quote for the safe and Efficient use of National Airspace

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Speaker 1: end quote. Now would be a while before the f

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Speaker 1: a A turned its attention to u a v s,

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Speaker 1: largely because there just weren't that many u a v

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Speaker 1: s out there to worry about it. Plus, hobbyist organizations

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Speaker 1: were trying to be proactive, so they were creating their

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Speaker 1: own sets of rules and guidelines for operation, and part

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Speaker 1: of that was in an effort to stay ahead of

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Speaker 1: the need for regulations, which many thought would end up

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Speaker 1: hurting the hobby as a whole. If you have to

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Speaker 1: start regulating things, you discourage people from getting involved in it.

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Speaker 1: So they're kind of hoping to head that off at

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Speaker 1: the pass and say, well, we're just going to make

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Speaker 1: sure that everyone is knows how to behave and operate

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Speaker 1: these things so that we don't have the government get involved.

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Speaker 1: And because again it was a relatively small number of people,

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Speaker 1: there wasn't much concern at least for a few decades.

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Speaker 1: There was one other federal agency that hobbyists and companies

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Speaker 1: catering to hobbyists had to pay attention to, and that

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Speaker 1: was the f c C, which is authorized to designate

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Speaker 1: radio frequencies for specific types of use. So radio controlled

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Speaker 1: vehicles fall into the same category as amateur radio, and

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Speaker 1: so all our C vehicles have to operate within the

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Speaker 1: amateur radio bandwidths of radio frequencies. Other frequency bandwidths are

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Speaker 1: meant for different purposes, So for example, television broadcast is

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Speaker 1: one of those where military use takes up several different bandwidths.

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Speaker 1: We'll get back to the FCC a bit later, because

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Speaker 1: there's a complication that arises it if you want to

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Speaker 1: use a ua V for commercial purposes. Um that the

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Speaker 1: f c C overseas alright, So for years r C

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Speaker 1: pilots didn't really have to worry about regulations as long

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Speaker 1: as they followed the guidelines that the various hobbyist organizations had.

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Speaker 1: A STAF published in the f a A issued an

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Speaker 1: advisory Circular on Model Aircraft Operating Standards, and these were

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Speaker 1: a list of safety standards that the f a A

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Speaker 1: advised model aircraft operators to follow. They were pretty straightforward

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Speaker 1: rules that broke down into the following. Don't operate a

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Speaker 1: model aircraft near populated and noise sensitive areas. Don't operate

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Speaker 1: a model aircraft in front of spectators until you've established

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Speaker 1: that the aircraft is actually air worthy through some flight testing.

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Speaker 1: Don't fly higher than four feet in altitude. If you

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Speaker 1: do want to fly a model aircraft within three miles

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Speaker 1: of an airport, you have to first notify the air

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Speaker 1: traffic facility or air traffic control tower first. UM I

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Speaker 1: think I said first there twice, But that's how important

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Speaker 1: it was. You were to give right of way to

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Speaker 1: any full scale aircraft and avoid flying in their proximity

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Speaker 1: whenever possible, and you were encouraged to talk with air

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Speaker 1: traffic control to help in your planning to comply with

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Speaker 1: those rules. And that was it, and it stayed that

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Speaker 1: way for a couple of decades. I'll talk about what

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Speaker 1: happened next in just a moment, but first let's take

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Speaker 1: a quick break. So as we know, technology continues to evolve,

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Speaker 1: and as tech evolves, it tends to become more accessible,

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Speaker 1: both because prices for that tech will drop and the

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Speaker 1: tech also gets easier to use. So what was once

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Speaker 1: a complicated task becomes more automated, and that means more

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Speaker 1: people can get involved in that activity without encountering a

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Speaker 1: very steep learning curve, and they don't have to develop

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Speaker 1: the same sort of skill that earlier hobbyists had to

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Speaker 1: develop in order to be active in that hobby. Flying

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Speaker 1: an RC plane before the development of automated technologies required

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Speaker 1: a whole lot of skill and focus. It's much easier

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Speaker 1: to fly a quad copter with automatic leveling capabilities. In fact,

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Speaker 1: it's hard to describe the difference. I've operated an RC

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Speaker 1: airplane before, and once it's in the air, it's not

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Speaker 1: that hard to control it, but it's a little tricky

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Speaker 1: if you want to bring it down safely. I always

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Speaker 1: had to hand the controls over to someone who is

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Speaker 1: more capable than I to do that. I could do

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Speaker 1: basic maneuvers, I couldn't do anything fancy. UM quad copters

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Speaker 1: are very different because it automates a lot of the

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Speaker 1: features that keeps the aircraft steady in the air as

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Speaker 1: you're giving it different commands, So you've given a lot

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Speaker 1: more freedom to do wacky stuff and not have to

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Speaker 1: worry so much about the aircraft having a total crash.

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Speaker 1: Now the technology advanced much faster than the law did,

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Speaker 1: which again it's pretty common in technology. We'd see it

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Speaker 1: in other areas, not just in things like transportation. We

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Speaker 1: see it pretty much everywhere where. Innovators come up with

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Speaker 1: a new idea that the law it really hasn't accounted

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Speaker 1: for yet, and then we see the law try to

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Speaker 1: catch up with the state of the art tech. But

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Speaker 1: that takes time, and it takes a while for regulators

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Speaker 1: to kind of suss out the details to sort of

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Speaker 1: caught a by them into rules and regulations. Now, the

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Speaker 1: popularity of drones inevitably led to several cases in which

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Speaker 1: the unmanned vehicles caused concern, including several near miss scenarios

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Speaker 1: with full scale aircraft near airports. So the f a

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Speaker 1: A recognized the situation was urgent that these drones were

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Speaker 1: just going to keep getting more and more popular, which

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Speaker 1: meant more of them in the air, which meant more

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Speaker 1: opportunities for disaster to occur. So the agency needed to

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Speaker 1: jump in on this point. Now, at first, the f

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Speaker 1: a A tried to enforce rules for actual aircraft that

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Speaker 1: and have them applied to u a v s, and

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Speaker 1: they concluded that unmanned aerial systems or u A S s s,

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Speaker 1: which essentially the same thing as U A V S

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Speaker 1: is just another name for it, are legally designated as aircraft,

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Speaker 1: and that would mean that all operators would have to

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Speaker 1: follow f a A rules and get certified to operate

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Speaker 1: their vehicles. The f A wanted to classify U A

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Speaker 1: S devices as aircraft under the Code of Federal Regulations,

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Speaker 1: specifically as defined in Part one oh three, which is

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Speaker 1: the section for ultra light vehicles. However, as defined, ultra

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Speaker 1: light vehicles are manned vehicles that either way less than

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Speaker 1: one fifty five pounds if they're unpowered, or two hundred

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Speaker 1: fifty four pounds if they are powered. That's around seventy

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Speaker 1: ms for unpowered and a little more than a hundred

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Speaker 1: and ten kilograms for powered aircraft. So when the f

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Speaker 1: a A attempted to prosecute cases centered on irresponsible and

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Speaker 1: dangerous operation of u AS vehicles using these rules as

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Speaker 1: their basis, that's where they encountered some problems. The case

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Speaker 1: went to the court system of the National Transportation Safety Board,

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Speaker 1: but the NTSB rejected the f A A S case

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Speaker 1: on the grounds that u AS vehicles do not meet

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Speaker 1: the definition of an ultra light aircraft. They said, you

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Speaker 1: can't apply the rules for this thing for this other thing.

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Speaker 1: There are two different things. So a lot of the

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Speaker 1: charges were dismissed, but there were a couple that did stick.

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Speaker 1: The court held up a charge involving operating drones within

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Speaker 1: controlled airspaces like a near an airport, so the f

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Speaker 1: a A had no legal justification to take operators to

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Speaker 1: court even if they were acting irresponsibly, so the agency

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Speaker 1: had limited authority. It was pretty clear that the f

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Speaker 1: a A could have the right to regulate operations within

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Speaker 1: controlled airspace, and that the f a A could establish

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Speaker 1: the right to regulate pilots and drone airworthiness. But some operations,

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Speaker 1: such as the indoor operation of drones, were deemed to

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Speaker 1: be completely outside the f a AS authority. They couldn't

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Speaker 1: say anything about how you operate a drone indoors. Now,

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Speaker 1: the f a A would go and draft a new

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Speaker 1: set of rules under Part one zero seven. This would

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Speaker 1: be small unmanned aircraft systems, so they drafted specific rules

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Speaker 1: to cover these devices since they did not fit on

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Speaker 1: the ultra light category. This would set the actual rules

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Speaker 1: that the f a A could actively enforce, and the

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Speaker 1: rules not only created the safe parameters for drone operation.

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Speaker 1: It also gave commercial U a S operators the legal

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Speaker 1: foundation upon which they could pursue their careers. Because commercial

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Speaker 1: U a S operators UH have to follow rules as well,

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Speaker 1: and they're different rules than recreational drone users. You might

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Speaker 1: wonder what a professional u a S operator is doing.

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Speaker 1: A lot of them are camera operators because a lot

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Speaker 1: of film projects end up meeting drone shots. They can

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Speaker 1: replace helicopter shots or crane shots, so you can see

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Speaker 1: them a lot in the entertainment and information industries, and

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Speaker 1: this was a way for people to actually make that

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Speaker 1: a living. Now, the rules states the drone operators have

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Speaker 1: to maintain a line of sight with their vehicles while

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Speaker 1: they're operating them outdoors. So you could not use a

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Speaker 1: camera and monitor system to pilot your your drone out

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Speaker 1: of sight. So you couldn't just go beyond line of sight.

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Speaker 1: With these these rules in place, the pilot has to

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Speaker 1: be able to lay eyes on the drone at all times. UH. Also,

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Speaker 1: the operators are to fly the drones at an altitude

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Speaker 1: ceiling of four hundred feet or a hundred twenty two.

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Speaker 1: That's the same as for the model airplanes, so that

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Speaker 1: didn't change. Another restriction states that you can't fly your

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Speaker 1: drone over human beings unless those people are undercover, So

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Speaker 1: if the drone were to follow the sky, wouldn't hurt anybody. Uh.

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Speaker 1: The only exception to this is if you are the

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Speaker 1: actual pilot of the drone, you can fly it over yourself,

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Speaker 1: but you're not allowed to fly it over anyone else.

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Speaker 1: That would become a big restriction for commercial drones, as

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Speaker 1: we'll talk about a bit later. The vehicles also can't

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Speaker 1: be carrying hazardous material, so you can't have you know,

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Speaker 1: like biological agents or chemical agents or things like that

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Speaker 1: are explosives on a drone that's illegal, and pilots are

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Speaker 1: limited to operating only a single aircraft at any given time.

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Speaker 1: There are also other rules that are involved with this,

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Speaker 1: but that's those are the general ones for recreational drone use.

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Speaker 1: In addition, if a ua V weighs more than point

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Speaker 1: to five kgrams or about point five five pounds, the

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Speaker 1: operator is required to register the drone. In the United States,

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Speaker 1: operators have to be at least thirteen years old in

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Speaker 1: order to register a drone. If they are younger than that,

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Speaker 1: they can have a quote unquote responsible adult do it

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Speaker 1: in their place. So you don't have to be thirteen

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Speaker 1: to operate a drone, but you have to be at

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Speaker 1: least thirteen to register a drone. The registration fee is

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Speaker 1: five dollars. It's good for three years, so it's not

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Speaker 1: prohibitively expensive. You know, drones are already pretty expensive, so

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Speaker 1: that's the limiting factor. I would argue more than the

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Speaker 1: registration fee. These rules are again just for recreational use.

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Speaker 1: They don't apply to people who are piloting drones for profit.

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Speaker 1: And starting in two thousand and six, the f a

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Speaker 1: A began to issue commercial drone permits. This gets complicated

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Speaker 1: because operating a drone commercially is in violation of those

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Speaker 1: f c C regulations I talked about, because the f

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Speaker 1: c C regulations state that you can only use those

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Speaker 1: amateur radio bands for amateur use. You cannot use it

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Speaker 1: to make a profit. That's you know, there are different

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Speaker 1: frequencies that are reserved for commercial use. So technically, if

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Speaker 1: you're making a living operating a drone, you can get

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Speaker 1: permission from the f a A to do it, but

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Speaker 1: the actual radio frequencies you're using to control the drone

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00:23:31,359 --> 00:23:35,480
Speaker 1: have to be over amateur radio frequencies and that technically

401
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Speaker 1: is in violation of the FCC rules. That being said,

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Speaker 1: I am not aware of any cases in which the

403
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Speaker 1: f c C came up against a drone operator and

404
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Speaker 1: said you're not allowed to do that because you're making

405
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Speaker 1: money and these frequencies have been reserved just for amateur use.

406
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Speaker 1: But technically it is against the rules. Maybe that means

407
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Speaker 1: that one day we'll see the rules get some adjustment,

408
00:23:59,680 --> 00:24:04,119
Speaker 1: but uh, yeah, it's an interesting issue that I guess

409
00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:06,400
Speaker 1: isn't really an issue because if no one's pressing the matter,

410
00:24:06,600 --> 00:24:11,679
Speaker 1: it doesn't ultimately mean anything. But technically it is against

411
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Speaker 1: the rules. So on average, once the f a A

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Speaker 1: started to issue commercial drone permits in two thousand and six,

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Speaker 1: it was issuing them at a rate of two per

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Speaker 1: year for about eight years. Now. That was not because

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00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:29,720
Speaker 1: the f a A was being particularly picky with who

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Speaker 1: got a drone permit to operate a drone commercially, It

417
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Speaker 1: was just because the demand was super low, not a

418
00:24:37,080 --> 00:24:41,120
Speaker 1: lot of people were requesting these certifications. However, that did

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Speaker 1: change dramatically in uh the f a went from doing

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Speaker 1: about two a year to doing a thousand permits. In

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Speaker 1: the following year, it more than tripled the number of permits,

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Speaker 1: so it's more than three thousand at that point. And

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Speaker 1: this is kind of in line with the rise in

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Speaker 1: quality of drones in general, as well as the camera

425
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Speaker 1: equipment aboard drones. So now you started to see, you know,

426
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Speaker 1: higher resolution cameras get attached to drones around this time,

427
00:25:09,560 --> 00:25:13,919
Speaker 1: so there were more uses, commercial potential, commercial uses for drones.

428
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Speaker 1: So as the camera's improved, interest in drone permits increased

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Speaker 1: and more filmmakers and producers began incorporating drone footage in

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Speaker 1: their works. But the rules as written would prohibit certain operations.

431
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Speaker 1: No company would be able to use drones to deliver

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Speaker 1: packages under the U A V Rules in Part Part

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Speaker 1: one oh seven. In order to get that permission, a

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00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:38,920
Speaker 1: company would have to take some extra steps. So, yeah,

435
00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:41,600
Speaker 1: you can operate a drone to shoot movies. You could

436
00:25:41,600 --> 00:25:43,840
Speaker 1: do that, and you can make a profit despite the

437
00:25:43,880 --> 00:25:47,320
Speaker 1: FCC guidelines. But you couldn't use a drone to carry

438
00:25:47,359 --> 00:25:51,040
Speaker 1: a package to a customer in the United States because

439
00:25:51,160 --> 00:25:54,920
Speaker 1: the f A rules would prohibit that. So the first

440
00:25:55,359 --> 00:25:58,879
Speaker 1: proposals to use drones for delivery started popping up in

441
00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:04,200
Speaker 1: that's when Amazon's Jeff Bezos showed news correspondent Charlie Rose

442
00:26:04,280 --> 00:26:07,879
Speaker 1: a project that was codenamed Prime Air still is to

443
00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:12,879
Speaker 1: this day. This program would have drones called octocopters, carrying

444
00:26:12,920 --> 00:26:16,240
Speaker 1: packages through the sky to customers homes, and it was

445
00:26:16,280 --> 00:26:18,560
Speaker 1: a big surprise to the television crew that was there

446
00:26:18,600 --> 00:26:21,280
Speaker 1: to shoot an interview with Bezos, and was a huge

447
00:26:21,440 --> 00:26:25,280
Speaker 1: unveiling to the world at large. The goal was to

448
00:26:25,440 --> 00:26:29,680
Speaker 1: speed up delivery considerably. So ideally, here's how this would unfold.

449
00:26:30,040 --> 00:26:33,000
Speaker 1: A customer would hit by on the Amazon site for

450
00:26:33,080 --> 00:26:35,840
Speaker 1: some small product. That would send a message to a

451
00:26:35,880 --> 00:26:40,199
Speaker 1: nearby order fulfillment center, and there the order would be

452
00:26:40,200 --> 00:26:43,200
Speaker 1: prepared and placed in a small yellow bucket, and then

453
00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:45,359
Speaker 1: a drone could come by and pick up the little

454
00:26:45,400 --> 00:26:48,439
Speaker 1: yellow bucket and then fly to the correct destination, setting

455
00:26:48,480 --> 00:26:51,520
Speaker 1: down the package and getting the product into the customer's

456
00:26:51,600 --> 00:26:55,000
Speaker 1: hands within a half hour of their ordering it. So

457
00:26:55,040 --> 00:26:58,480
Speaker 1: it was a pretty revolutionary idea, particularly for two thousand thirteen.

458
00:26:59,040 --> 00:27:01,879
Speaker 1: Bezos estimate it would take probably four to five years

459
00:27:01,920 --> 00:27:05,159
Speaker 1: to really perfect the technology and get regulations in place

460
00:27:05,359 --> 00:27:08,879
Speaker 1: to make it a viable service. It's now six years

461
00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:12,200
Speaker 1: after that, and that hasn't happened yet, but a different

462
00:27:12,200 --> 00:27:14,600
Speaker 1: company did close the gap. More on that in just

463
00:27:14,640 --> 00:27:18,200
Speaker 1: a second. But since Amazon's reveal, a few different companies,

464
00:27:18,240 --> 00:27:21,760
Speaker 1: including Amazon, have attempted to run some limited programs to

465
00:27:21,840 --> 00:27:25,320
Speaker 1: research the feasibility of delivery drones. They had to be

466
00:27:25,359 --> 00:27:27,879
Speaker 1: limited in the US because the f a A was

467
00:27:27,920 --> 00:27:30,480
Speaker 1: still working out how to regulate the practice, and the

468
00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:33,680
Speaker 1: rules for recreational use were too restrictive for a practical

469
00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:37,840
Speaker 1: delivery drone. Ideally, you'd want a largely automated system, which

470
00:27:37,880 --> 00:27:40,000
Speaker 1: means the operator might not even be a human being.

471
00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:42,120
Speaker 1: It might be a computer system. But if you did

472
00:27:42,160 --> 00:27:44,960
Speaker 1: have a human pilot, you'd probably want that person to

473
00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:47,880
Speaker 1: be stationed in the headquarters and operating the vehicle via

474
00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:52,320
Speaker 1: remote control and using onboard cameras for visual information fed

475
00:27:52,359 --> 00:27:54,639
Speaker 1: back to monitors in front of the pilot. But that

476
00:27:54,760 --> 00:27:57,840
Speaker 1: violates the line of site rule that recreational pilots have

477
00:27:57,920 --> 00:28:00,879
Speaker 1: to follow. It wouldn't make sense for livery services to

478
00:28:01,040 --> 00:28:03,880
Speaker 1: have to follow that rule, because if a person has

479
00:28:03,920 --> 00:28:08,440
Speaker 1: to trail behind a drone in order to make a delivery,

480
00:28:08,440 --> 00:28:10,480
Speaker 1: why would you not just give the package to the

481
00:28:10,520 --> 00:28:14,160
Speaker 1: person the operator and then they could make the delivery themselves.

482
00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:17,919
Speaker 1: It's it's a waste of resources to have a person

483
00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:20,760
Speaker 1: go along with the package. Now, there were a few

484
00:28:20,800 --> 00:28:25,000
Speaker 1: demonstrations that were little more than publicity stunts rather than

485
00:28:25,040 --> 00:28:28,280
Speaker 1: an example of a working practice. So, for example, there

486
00:28:28,320 --> 00:28:31,680
Speaker 1: was a guy named Harut Vartanian who was the owner

487
00:28:31,720 --> 00:28:35,040
Speaker 1: of a dry cleaning business in Philadelphia called the Mena

488
00:28:35,160 --> 00:28:39,320
Speaker 1: Yunk Cleaners. Then he used a converted d j I

489
00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:43,600
Speaker 1: Phantom quad copter, which is a radio controlled device. Uh,

490
00:28:43,720 --> 00:28:47,080
Speaker 1: and he did it to deliver light loads of dry cleaning.

491
00:28:47,080 --> 00:28:50,440
Speaker 1: And by light I mean like a couple of shirts maybe.

492
00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:54,080
Speaker 1: And not only was it remote controlled, it actually required

493
00:28:54,200 --> 00:28:57,680
Speaker 1: two people to operate the drone. One person acted as pilot,

494
00:28:57,720 --> 00:28:59,800
Speaker 1: the other one acted as a spotter to make sure

495
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:02,800
Speaker 1: it the drone wasn't going to run into anything or

496
00:29:02,960 --> 00:29:07,240
Speaker 1: encounter any obstacles. Now, obviously that is not a labor

497
00:29:07,400 --> 00:29:11,000
Speaker 1: saving effort, right If you're using two people to deliver

498
00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:14,080
Speaker 1: a couple of shirts using a drone, you're obviously on

499
00:29:14,120 --> 00:29:16,440
Speaker 1: the losing end of a proposition as far as work

500
00:29:16,440 --> 00:29:19,480
Speaker 1: efficiency goes. However, that really wasn't the point. The point

501
00:29:19,600 --> 00:29:23,360
Speaker 1: was to have a marketing approach that would attract more

502
00:29:23,440 --> 00:29:27,640
Speaker 1: young people to the business, and it's certainly gathered a

503
00:29:27,640 --> 00:29:31,480
Speaker 1: lot of of interest from various news media in the area.

504
00:29:31,560 --> 00:29:34,440
Speaker 1: There are a lot of videos about this particular move,

505
00:29:34,840 --> 00:29:37,240
Speaker 1: even though it was not a practical solution to the

506
00:29:37,280 --> 00:29:41,600
Speaker 1: problem of delivery. Other demonstrations were perhaps a little more practical,

507
00:29:41,920 --> 00:29:44,560
Speaker 1: though still clearly orchestrated to get a lot of news coverage.

508
00:29:44,880 --> 00:29:47,720
Speaker 1: In two thousand and fourteen, Domino's Pizza announced it was

509
00:29:47,720 --> 00:29:51,720
Speaker 1: partnering with a drone company called Flirty, a US drone company,

510
00:29:51,760 --> 00:29:55,120
Speaker 1: to arrange for drone pizza delivery services in a small

511
00:29:55,160 --> 00:29:59,400
Speaker 1: area in New Zealand. In reality, due to regulatory hurdles,

512
00:29:59,440 --> 00:30:02,200
Speaker 1: it took about two years for the company to deliver

513
00:30:02,320 --> 00:30:05,560
Speaker 1: its first pizza by drone, doing so in a New

514
00:30:05,640 --> 00:30:10,680
Speaker 1: Zealand town whose name I will now totally mangle. It's

515
00:30:10,880 --> 00:30:16,800
Speaker 1: Wanga Paroa. I know I butchered that name, and I

516
00:30:16,840 --> 00:30:20,000
Speaker 1: am deeply sorry. But the drones carried pizza in a

517
00:30:20,040 --> 00:30:24,920
Speaker 1: cardboard box which was holding a standard cardboard pizza box

518
00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:29,840
Speaker 1: inside of it, and presumably inside that was the za itself.

519
00:30:30,280 --> 00:30:33,000
Speaker 1: The drone would fly off to a customer's home hover

520
00:30:33,160 --> 00:30:37,160
Speaker 1: over their backyard and lower the cardboard box on a

521
00:30:37,240 --> 00:30:40,240
Speaker 1: toe cable until the box was safely on the ground,

522
00:30:40,520 --> 00:30:42,880
Speaker 1: at which point the cable would disengage with the box

523
00:30:43,240 --> 00:30:45,240
Speaker 1: would wind back up inside the drone, and the drone

524
00:30:45,280 --> 00:30:49,120
Speaker 1: would fly back home to Domino's now Wing, which I'll

525
00:30:49,160 --> 00:30:52,239
Speaker 1: talk about more in a few minutes. Also ran a

526
00:30:52,240 --> 00:30:57,040
Speaker 1: similar demonstration in Australia in two seventeen, using its drones

527
00:30:57,320 --> 00:31:00,480
Speaker 1: to deliver food from a Mexican restaurant chain, as well

528
00:31:00,560 --> 00:31:04,280
Speaker 1: as orders from a drug store company, though honestly, I

529
00:31:04,320 --> 00:31:06,480
Speaker 1: think most of the coverage was focused more on the

530
00:31:06,480 --> 00:31:11,440
Speaker 1: burritos than the drugs. UH. At Amazon's Machine Learning, Automation,

531
00:31:11,520 --> 00:31:15,320
Speaker 1: Robotics and Space Exploration conference also known as MARS, the

532
00:31:15,360 --> 00:31:19,680
Speaker 1: company delivered bottles of sunscreen to conference attendees, and the

533
00:31:19,680 --> 00:31:23,520
Speaker 1: company announced that the whole delivery thing was planned in advance,

534
00:31:23,600 --> 00:31:29,040
Speaker 1: but it was executed as a fully automated process. There

535
00:31:29,120 --> 00:31:32,400
Speaker 1: was no one piloting the actual drones, and it was

536
00:31:32,440 --> 00:31:36,760
Speaker 1: the first demonstration of Amazon's Prime Air technology on public grounds.

537
00:31:36,800 --> 00:31:39,560
Speaker 1: All previous testing, at least in the United States, have

538
00:31:39,680 --> 00:31:44,000
Speaker 1: been on private property. Now, Amazon had done other pilot

539
00:31:44,120 --> 00:31:47,200
Speaker 1: programs or I guess we should say pilot less programs

540
00:31:47,360 --> 00:31:50,440
Speaker 1: in other countries in the UK, where the company did

541
00:31:50,480 --> 00:31:54,120
Speaker 1: not encounter the same regulatory concerns as it did in

542
00:31:54,120 --> 00:31:57,360
Speaker 1: the United States. It went a little further, a little faster.

543
00:31:57,480 --> 00:32:01,080
Speaker 1: Amazon ran a test program of Prime Air in Cambridge

544
00:32:01,160 --> 00:32:05,400
Speaker 1: starting back in sixteen. So the company has operated in

545
00:32:05,560 --> 00:32:08,960
Speaker 1: limited fashion in other markets, just not in the US.

546
00:32:09,800 --> 00:32:12,520
Speaker 1: But the company that has reasonly managed to take the

547
00:32:12,560 --> 00:32:15,320
Speaker 1: next big step in drone delivery is Wing, and I'll

548
00:32:15,360 --> 00:32:18,120
Speaker 1: explain more in just a second, but first let's take

549
00:32:18,200 --> 00:32:28,600
Speaker 1: another quick break. So, as I mentioned earlier in this episode,

550
00:32:28,640 --> 00:32:32,280
Speaker 1: Wing is a company under the parent company Alphabet. That's

551
00:32:32,560 --> 00:32:35,880
Speaker 1: again the same parent company to Google, and Wing has

552
00:32:35,920 --> 00:32:38,960
Speaker 1: advanced the possibility of drone delivery in the US to

553
00:32:39,120 --> 00:32:43,120
Speaker 1: become the first drone company to secure air carrier certification

554
00:32:43,200 --> 00:32:45,680
Speaker 1: from the f a A, and the f a A

555
00:32:46,240 --> 00:32:49,880
Speaker 1: had made the determination that any large scale drone delivery

556
00:32:49,920 --> 00:32:52,360
Speaker 1: service in the US would have to meet the safety

557
00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:57,000
Speaker 1: and economic certification standards, the same ones that a licensed

558
00:32:57,120 --> 00:32:59,840
Speaker 1: airline in the United States would have to meet. And

559
00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:02,240
Speaker 1: eye license airline, I really am talking about things like

560
00:33:02,280 --> 00:33:06,280
Speaker 1: a charter airline or a small air cargo operation. Now,

561
00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:09,920
Speaker 1: without that certification, companies would not be allowed to operate

562
00:33:09,960 --> 00:33:13,520
Speaker 1: a drone delivery service at scale, and certainly not be

563
00:33:13,600 --> 00:33:17,320
Speaker 1: able to charge for the delivery service. They could charge

564
00:33:17,320 --> 00:33:20,280
Speaker 1: for the products, but not the delivery service itself, So

565
00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:23,880
Speaker 1: companies had a big incentive to work through this process.

566
00:33:24,160 --> 00:33:27,400
Speaker 1: Wing is the first company to actually do it. So

567
00:33:27,600 --> 00:33:30,880
Speaker 1: let's dive down a little bit into those standards to

568
00:33:30,920 --> 00:33:33,760
Speaker 1: get a better understanding of how something that applies to

569
00:33:34,240 --> 00:33:38,640
Speaker 1: manned aircraft that carry human passengers and cargo can also

570
00:33:38,680 --> 00:33:42,680
Speaker 1: apply to an unmanned autonomous drone. Now, in the introduction

571
00:33:42,880 --> 00:33:47,520
Speaker 1: to Air Carrier Certification, the f a A states quote,

572
00:33:47,920 --> 00:33:52,160
Speaker 1: the Federal Aviation Administration f a A uses the Air

573
00:33:52,240 --> 00:33:56,120
Speaker 1: Carrier certification process to ensure that you, the applicant, are

574
00:33:56,160 --> 00:34:01,760
Speaker 1: able to design, document, implement an audit safety critical processes

575
00:34:02,040 --> 00:34:06,200
Speaker 1: that do two things. Comply with regulations and safety standards

576
00:34:06,600 --> 00:34:11,000
Speaker 1: manage hazard related risks in your operating environment. The purpose

577
00:34:11,120 --> 00:34:14,560
Speaker 1: for the certification process is really to determine whether an

578
00:34:14,600 --> 00:34:17,080
Speaker 1: applicant is able to conduct business in a manner that

579
00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:21,240
Speaker 1: complies with all applicable regulations and safety standards and allows

580
00:34:21,280 --> 00:34:24,240
Speaker 1: you to manage the hazard related risks in your operating

581
00:34:24,239 --> 00:34:28,120
Speaker 1: systems and environment. The process is designed to preclude the

582
00:34:28,160 --> 00:34:32,240
Speaker 1: certification of applicants who are unwilling or unable to comply

583
00:34:32,400 --> 00:34:37,560
Speaker 1: with regulations or to conform to safe operating practices. So,

584
00:34:37,960 --> 00:34:40,200
Speaker 1: in other words, this whole process is there to make

585
00:34:40,239 --> 00:34:42,560
Speaker 1: sure that the people who want to operate these kind

586
00:34:42,560 --> 00:34:47,880
Speaker 1: of businesses really know their stuff and discourage those who

587
00:34:47,920 --> 00:34:49,799
Speaker 1: are like man, I shere would love to run an

588
00:34:50,160 --> 00:34:53,800
Speaker 1: air charter company and then realize, oh wait, I don't.

589
00:34:53,880 --> 00:34:57,680
Speaker 1: I don't have the knowledge or skill set to actually

590
00:34:57,760 --> 00:35:01,200
Speaker 1: pull this off as a real business. I'm discouraged by this.

591
00:35:01,520 --> 00:35:04,360
Speaker 1: It's better that I turn away from it now before

592
00:35:04,400 --> 00:35:06,960
Speaker 1: I spend too much time and money trying to develop

593
00:35:07,000 --> 00:35:12,000
Speaker 1: a business that ultimately I cannot actually oversee. So the

594
00:35:12,080 --> 00:35:16,160
Speaker 1: f a A divides this whole process up into five phases,

595
00:35:16,719 --> 00:35:18,200
Speaker 1: and I'm not going to go through all of them.

596
00:35:18,360 --> 00:35:22,040
Speaker 1: The first phase is technically a pre application phase to

597
00:35:22,239 --> 00:35:25,080
Speaker 1: issuing a certain certificate. That would be the final phase

598
00:35:25,200 --> 00:35:28,640
Speaker 1: is actually giving the certificate out. That's phase five. So

599
00:35:28,680 --> 00:35:32,880
Speaker 1: the early phases are really about the development, submission, and

600
00:35:32,920 --> 00:35:37,040
Speaker 1: analysis of a company's operating systems to make sure that

601
00:35:37,680 --> 00:35:40,960
Speaker 1: the business plan and the operation plan that the company

602
00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:45,280
Speaker 1: has complies with all regulations and safety standards. So essentially,

603
00:35:45,280 --> 00:35:48,920
Speaker 1: this is how a company is going to operate on paper, right,

604
00:35:49,280 --> 00:35:52,800
Speaker 1: It's their plan and it has to be a good,

605
00:35:53,000 --> 00:35:58,240
Speaker 1: thorough one that meets all these different regulations for safety

606
00:35:58,320 --> 00:36:01,520
Speaker 1: and risk assessment for the FAA to even go any

607
00:36:01,560 --> 00:36:03,879
Speaker 1: further in the process. So the f a A has

608
00:36:03,920 --> 00:36:06,960
Speaker 1: analysts who will take the submission of this plan on

609
00:36:07,040 --> 00:36:10,200
Speaker 1: paper and they will go through it with a fine

610
00:36:10,239 --> 00:36:13,359
Speaker 1: toothed comb to make sure everything is in order, that

611
00:36:13,480 --> 00:36:17,520
Speaker 1: the people behind the company have truly thought about the

612
00:36:17,640 --> 00:36:21,680
Speaker 1: risks associated with operating the business as defined, and they

613
00:36:21,719 --> 00:36:26,240
Speaker 1: have plans in place to mitigate or correct for any

614
00:36:27,080 --> 00:36:32,080
Speaker 1: any risks or safety concerns that might arise. UH. The

615
00:36:32,120 --> 00:36:35,759
Speaker 1: companies also have to submit a safety risk management process

616
00:36:35,800 --> 00:36:38,600
Speaker 1: that the FAA has to approve before moving on, which

617
00:36:38,640 --> 00:36:41,319
Speaker 1: then brings us all the way up through Phase three

618
00:36:41,440 --> 00:36:44,799
Speaker 1: and two Phase four. So assuming the company's plans are

619
00:36:44,800 --> 00:36:48,239
Speaker 1: in order, assuming that they get through phase three, the

620
00:36:48,400 --> 00:36:53,160
Speaker 1: phase four is all about a demonstration of the operations

621
00:36:53,200 --> 00:36:55,840
Speaker 1: of the company. So now you're no longer talking about

622
00:36:55,880 --> 00:36:58,279
Speaker 1: the company on paper. Now you have to be able

623
00:36:58,320 --> 00:37:01,600
Speaker 1: to prove that it works in action in the real world.

624
00:37:02,600 --> 00:37:06,759
Speaker 1: So again, the earlier phases were all about saying, this

625
00:37:06,840 --> 00:37:08,759
Speaker 1: is how we're going to do business. This is how

626
00:37:08,800 --> 00:37:11,960
Speaker 1: we're going to detect any potential problems, this is how

627
00:37:11,960 --> 00:37:14,120
Speaker 1: we're going to address those problems. It's how we're going

628
00:37:14,160 --> 00:37:19,040
Speaker 1: to ensure the safety of our customers and everybody else.

629
00:37:19,360 --> 00:37:22,600
Speaker 1: Phase four is actually testing that plan out with a demonstration.

630
00:37:22,680 --> 00:37:26,239
Speaker 1: So with traditional airline companies, that even includes the operation

631
00:37:26,400 --> 00:37:29,040
Speaker 1: of the aircraft to satisfy the f a a S

632
00:37:29,120 --> 00:37:34,200
Speaker 1: requirements that the said aircraft is meeting all safety regulations,

633
00:37:34,560 --> 00:37:37,360
Speaker 1: and then the company has to pass a series approving

634
00:37:37,440 --> 00:37:40,680
Speaker 1: tests set by the f a A. And if they

635
00:37:40,680 --> 00:37:43,520
Speaker 1: can do that, then they can show that their real

636
00:37:43,600 --> 00:37:49,320
Speaker 1: world implementation of this operations plan actually works. Now, assuming

637
00:37:49,440 --> 00:37:53,000
Speaker 1: all of the requirements are met satisfactorily, the f a

638
00:37:53,040 --> 00:37:56,000
Speaker 1: would then issue the air carrier certificate to the company.

639
00:37:56,239 --> 00:37:59,400
Speaker 1: This is phase five. Most of the safety requirements are

640
00:37:59,440 --> 00:38:03,520
Speaker 1: all about identifying those potential risks and and how the

641
00:38:03,560 --> 00:38:07,960
Speaker 1: business would identify, analyze, assess, and address those risks, and

642
00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:11,560
Speaker 1: how the business would assign accountability for its operations. So

643
00:38:12,040 --> 00:38:14,239
Speaker 1: one of the things you have to submit when you're

644
00:38:14,239 --> 00:38:18,640
Speaker 1: submitting for an air carrier certificate is the name of

645
00:38:18,760 --> 00:38:23,200
Speaker 1: a representative of the company who is the accountability executive.

646
00:38:23,560 --> 00:38:28,360
Speaker 1: That's the person for whom all accountability ultimately falls for

647
00:38:28,480 --> 00:38:30,160
Speaker 1: that business. So it needs to be someone you're really

648
00:38:30,200 --> 00:38:35,480
Speaker 1: confident in who can be incredibly certain that the operations

649
00:38:35,520 --> 00:38:39,879
Speaker 1: are going to be safe and reliable. So it's all

650
00:38:39,920 --> 00:38:42,239
Speaker 1: meant to demonstrate that people at the company have a

651
00:38:42,320 --> 00:38:45,840
Speaker 1: real understanding of how to operate in airspace and in

652
00:38:45,880 --> 00:38:50,200
Speaker 1: a responsible and safe manner. The process can take months,

653
00:38:50,880 --> 00:38:53,520
Speaker 1: and when news broke in March two thousand nineteen that

654
00:38:53,600 --> 00:38:56,680
Speaker 1: the f a A was going to award a drone

655
00:38:56,719 --> 00:39:00,839
Speaker 1: delivery business one of these air carrier certificate, it did

656
00:39:00,880 --> 00:39:03,600
Speaker 1: not take a whole lot of detective work to figure

657
00:39:03,600 --> 00:39:06,799
Speaker 1: out that the most likely candidate was Wing, because it

658
00:39:06,840 --> 00:39:10,239
Speaker 1: was the only drone delivery company that was listed on

659
00:39:10,280 --> 00:39:13,200
Speaker 1: the f a a's website as having applied for the

660
00:39:13,200 --> 00:39:16,279
Speaker 1: certification in the first place. So it was either Wing

661
00:39:16,800 --> 00:39:20,319
Speaker 1: or some company that the f a A just didn't disclose,

662
00:39:20,719 --> 00:39:23,920
Speaker 1: so pretty pretty much everyone already figured it out. Even

663
00:39:23,960 --> 00:39:26,680
Speaker 1: with this new approval, Wing will still have to operate

664
00:39:26,760 --> 00:39:30,560
Speaker 1: within some pretty tight restrictions. The FAA has yet to

665
00:39:30,680 --> 00:39:34,359
Speaker 1: establish the rules for operating drones in more densely populated

666
00:39:34,440 --> 00:39:37,799
Speaker 1: areas such as cities, and while commercial drones don't have

667
00:39:37,840 --> 00:39:41,839
Speaker 1: to follow all the same rules as recreational drone operators,

668
00:39:42,200 --> 00:39:45,399
Speaker 1: one of those rules still applies, which is you are

669
00:39:45,400 --> 00:39:49,000
Speaker 1: not allowed to fly a drone over other human beings.

670
00:39:49,200 --> 00:39:52,759
Speaker 1: You can't have drones flying over people because of the

671
00:39:52,800 --> 00:39:57,480
Speaker 1: potential hazard it poses, and for that reason, Wing is

672
00:39:57,560 --> 00:40:02,000
Speaker 1: limiting its service to some role communities in Virginia. Those

673
00:40:02,080 --> 00:40:04,840
Speaker 1: lucky Virginians will be able to order stuff to be

674
00:40:04,920 --> 00:40:08,840
Speaker 1: delivered by Wing drones, largely because there's very little likelihood

675
00:40:08,840 --> 00:40:11,120
Speaker 1: that the drones will need to fly over any crowds

676
00:40:11,160 --> 00:40:14,759
Speaker 1: of people in order to get to their destinations. So

677
00:40:14,880 --> 00:40:17,800
Speaker 1: then has limited utility. Even if it were to expand

678
00:40:17,840 --> 00:40:20,560
Speaker 1: to other regions, which is wings ultimate plan. They do

679
00:40:20,640 --> 00:40:24,200
Speaker 1: want to expand operations to other communities, at the moment,

680
00:40:24,400 --> 00:40:26,560
Speaker 1: they would still need to be communities that are fairly

681
00:40:26,600 --> 00:40:29,080
Speaker 1: spread out where you're not going to have drones flying

682
00:40:29,080 --> 00:40:32,760
Speaker 1: over people's heads, because there's still no rules to guide

683
00:40:32,800 --> 00:40:36,279
Speaker 1: that kind of operation. So the plan for the near

684
00:40:36,320 --> 00:40:39,840
Speaker 1: future is for Wing to continue its operations. This way,

685
00:40:40,600 --> 00:40:43,640
Speaker 1: it will continue to refine its approach and tweak things

686
00:40:43,640 --> 00:40:46,040
Speaker 1: that might not work so well as they could. Once

687
00:40:46,440 --> 00:40:50,600
Speaker 1: the delivery delivery drones are actively delivering packages to people

688
00:40:50,600 --> 00:40:53,960
Speaker 1: in those communities in Virginia, they can use that as

689
00:40:53,960 --> 00:40:56,440
Speaker 1: sort of testing grounds to see what the best practices

690
00:40:56,480 --> 00:40:59,799
Speaker 1: are for their business. But in the meantime, the hope

691
00:40:59,840 --> 00:41:03,080
Speaker 1: is at the f a A will continue to create

692
00:41:03,160 --> 00:41:07,680
Speaker 1: these rules that would allow companies like Wing to expand

693
00:41:07,680 --> 00:41:11,480
Speaker 1: operations to markets that would find those services perhaps more helpful,

694
00:41:11,840 --> 00:41:14,920
Speaker 1: like cities. Now in other parts of the world, companies

695
00:41:14,920 --> 00:41:17,680
Speaker 1: are moving forward at a slightly faster pace. Every area

696
00:41:17,840 --> 00:41:21,640
Speaker 1: is different, so companies like Wing or Amazon might face

697
00:41:21,760 --> 00:41:26,439
Speaker 1: completely different regulations or political resistance or acceptance um in

698
00:41:26,640 --> 00:41:30,360
Speaker 1: one country than they would in the United States, so

699
00:41:30,800 --> 00:41:36,239
Speaker 1: they often are experimenting in multiple markets simultaneously. Some are

700
00:41:36,280 --> 00:41:39,280
Speaker 1: much more receptive than others, so it is not something

701
00:41:39,280 --> 00:41:43,000
Speaker 1: that is is advancing evenly around the world. Meanwhile, in

702
00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:45,800
Speaker 1: the US, there are a lot of unanswered questions. Typically,

703
00:41:45,880 --> 00:41:49,200
Speaker 1: airspace regulations fall to the federal level, they are not

704
00:41:49,400 --> 00:41:54,040
Speaker 1: state level considerations, but there are some questions about what

705
00:41:54,080 --> 00:41:56,680
Speaker 1: happens if a drone has to cross state lines to

706
00:41:56,719 --> 00:41:59,319
Speaker 1: make a delivery. You might have a big city in

707
00:41:59,440 --> 00:42:02,600
Speaker 1: one state that is bordering a state line, and on

708
00:42:02,640 --> 00:42:04,080
Speaker 1: the other side of the state line, you might have

709
00:42:04,160 --> 00:42:08,360
Speaker 1: a small community, which means that deliveries are typically crossing

710
00:42:08,400 --> 00:42:12,400
Speaker 1: state lines. Uh. Is that going to cause any issues

711
00:42:12,600 --> 00:42:16,560
Speaker 1: with the drones? That's still a question, Like, you know,

712
00:42:16,760 --> 00:42:20,400
Speaker 1: the regulatory issues, not technical issues. There's nothing technically different

713
00:42:20,400 --> 00:42:23,880
Speaker 1: about crossing a state line. But are the regulatory problems

714
00:42:23,960 --> 00:42:26,640
Speaker 1: that might we might encounter. That's a question that hasn't

715
00:42:26,640 --> 00:42:29,600
Speaker 1: been answered yet. I find it fascinating that we're already

716
00:42:30,040 --> 00:42:33,759
Speaker 1: at a level of technical sophistication which a drone can

717
00:42:34,239 --> 00:42:37,680
Speaker 1: technically deliver stuff to an address by itself in the

718
00:42:37,719 --> 00:42:42,040
Speaker 1: first place. We're already there technologically, and I think that's amazing.

719
00:42:42,640 --> 00:42:46,320
Speaker 1: I've seen some implementations in which the person who's receiving

720
00:42:46,320 --> 00:42:48,400
Speaker 1: a package first has to go out and put down

721
00:42:48,880 --> 00:42:51,719
Speaker 1: kind of a mat. It's usually a square that has

722
00:42:51,760 --> 00:42:55,440
Speaker 1: a clear symbol on it, and the camera aboard a

723
00:42:55,520 --> 00:42:59,600
Speaker 1: drone can pick up the image. Some software processes the image,

724
00:42:59,719 --> 00:43:04,160
Speaker 1: and mide recognition software says, ah, this is indeed the

725
00:43:04,280 --> 00:43:07,160
Speaker 1: right location for me to deliver this package, and the

726
00:43:07,239 --> 00:43:13,600
Speaker 1: drone would typically descend landing more or less on that pad,

727
00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:17,880
Speaker 1: dropping its package, and then flying off. And other implementations,

728
00:43:18,160 --> 00:43:20,800
Speaker 1: it wasn't obvious if there was anything on the ground

729
00:43:20,840 --> 00:43:23,680
Speaker 1: that was marketing marking the point where the drone was

730
00:43:23,719 --> 00:43:26,560
Speaker 1: supposed to leave a package. So it's possible that there

731
00:43:26,600 --> 00:43:29,839
Speaker 1: are some implementations that don't require you to put out

732
00:43:29,920 --> 00:43:32,680
Speaker 1: such a pad meeting. You can just stay in your

733
00:43:32,680 --> 00:43:34,520
Speaker 1: house while you're waiting for the drone delivery, and then

734
00:43:34,520 --> 00:43:36,160
Speaker 1: when you get a notification you can go outside and

735
00:43:36,200 --> 00:43:39,640
Speaker 1: pick it up. But I'll know for sure because a

736
00:43:39,680 --> 00:43:41,880
Speaker 1: lot of the videos for this kind of stuff are

737
00:43:41,920 --> 00:43:43,439
Speaker 1: shot in such a way that you don't really see

738
00:43:43,480 --> 00:43:45,920
Speaker 1: the ground so well, or there are clearly sort of

739
00:43:45,960 --> 00:43:48,600
Speaker 1: a pr video where you can't be certain that it

740
00:43:48,719 --> 00:43:54,200
Speaker 1: really reflects the reality of the scenario. UH. But to

741
00:43:54,239 --> 00:43:56,640
Speaker 1: make this work a lot had to come together. The

742
00:43:56,640 --> 00:43:59,040
Speaker 1: physical operation of the drone has to account for the

743
00:43:59,080 --> 00:44:02,320
Speaker 1: weight of the pay road. Typically these companies are maxing

744
00:44:02,320 --> 00:44:05,600
Speaker 1: out at around five pounds for a payload, or about

745
00:44:05,600 --> 00:44:08,480
Speaker 1: two point to seven kilograms. UH. The drone has to

746
00:44:08,520 --> 00:44:11,520
Speaker 1: be able to maintain stable flight even in breezy conditions.

747
00:44:11,560 --> 00:44:13,880
Speaker 1: I do imagine that if the weather is particularly nasty,

748
00:44:14,000 --> 00:44:16,640
Speaker 1: drones are not going to be operating that day. The

749
00:44:16,680 --> 00:44:20,120
Speaker 1: obstacle recognition technology has to be top notch because the

750
00:44:20,200 --> 00:44:23,240
Speaker 1: drones are gonna be navigating areas that can have potential

751
00:44:23,320 --> 00:44:27,960
Speaker 1: obstacles like power lines, trees, water towers, and other buildings.

752
00:44:28,360 --> 00:44:30,440
Speaker 1: So there's still a long way to go, but some

753
00:44:30,520 --> 00:44:33,040
Speaker 1: things that have acted as barriers for the drone delivery

754
00:44:33,080 --> 00:44:36,320
Speaker 1: business are now at least resolved in the United States,

755
00:44:36,360 --> 00:44:42,960
Speaker 1: like there's there's clearly been one case where the first

756
00:44:42,960 --> 00:44:48,600
Speaker 1: steps towards widespread drone delivery are possible. Uh. The big

757
00:44:48,680 --> 00:44:52,680
Speaker 1: step obviously is that air carrier certification process. So Win

758
00:44:52,800 --> 00:44:56,400
Speaker 1: can actually charge money now for its drone delivery service

759
00:44:56,640 --> 00:45:00,399
Speaker 1: because it's received this certification. You know, before they could

760
00:45:00,440 --> 00:45:04,680
Speaker 1: offer a drone delivery service in a trial experiment, but

761
00:45:04,719 --> 00:45:07,240
Speaker 1: they couldn't charge for it. That would have been against

762
00:45:07,280 --> 00:45:10,800
Speaker 1: the f a's rules. Now they can charge for it. Again,

763
00:45:11,640 --> 00:45:14,800
Speaker 1: there's still the issue with FCC, but no one seems

764
00:45:14,800 --> 00:45:18,040
Speaker 1: to be particularly concerned with that um So you can

765
00:45:18,080 --> 00:45:22,720
Speaker 1: now include a delivery convenience fee on top of the

766
00:45:22,800 --> 00:45:25,919
Speaker 1: cost for the whatever the the item is. Now, will

767
00:45:26,000 --> 00:45:29,360
Speaker 1: we see a future in which delivery trucks disappear and

768
00:45:29,440 --> 00:45:32,720
Speaker 1: drones are delivering everything the skies are cloudy with drones,

769
00:45:33,760 --> 00:45:37,440
Speaker 1: Probably not. Drones are still gonna have physical limitations on

770
00:45:37,440 --> 00:45:40,280
Speaker 1: how much they can carry, and sometimes we order stuff

771
00:45:40,320 --> 00:45:43,000
Speaker 1: that's heavier than five pounds, which means they're still gonna

772
00:45:43,000 --> 00:45:46,320
Speaker 1: have to be someone driving that stuff around. And again,

773
00:45:46,480 --> 00:45:49,960
Speaker 1: types of weather might end up complicating matters, but for

774
00:45:49,960 --> 00:45:53,200
Speaker 1: certain types of products, those being small and lighter than

775
00:45:53,200 --> 00:45:55,000
Speaker 1: a few pounds, you might be able to get a

776
00:45:55,040 --> 00:45:57,920
Speaker 1: delivery within a half hour of ordering courtesy of a

777
00:45:57,920 --> 00:46:01,680
Speaker 1: little flying robo friend. So that brings us up to

778
00:46:01,760 --> 00:46:05,480
Speaker 1: speed to the current state of drone delivery systems. And

779
00:46:05,560 --> 00:46:09,120
Speaker 1: that concludes this episode. If you have any suggestions for

780
00:46:09,200 --> 00:46:11,560
Speaker 1: future episodes, or any comments or anything you would like

781
00:46:11,600 --> 00:46:14,359
Speaker 1: to send me, the email addresses tech Stuff at how

782
00:46:14,400 --> 00:46:16,960
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com, or you can pop on by

783
00:46:16,960 --> 00:46:20,319
Speaker 1: our website that's text stuff podcast dot com. You'll find

784
00:46:20,320 --> 00:46:23,080
Speaker 1: an archive of all of our old episodes there, plus

785
00:46:23,160 --> 00:46:27,040
Speaker 1: links to our social media sites and a link to

786
00:46:27,120 --> 00:46:29,799
Speaker 1: our online store, where every purchase you make goes to

787
00:46:29,800 --> 00:46:32,439
Speaker 1: help the show and we greatly appreciate it, and I'll

788
00:46:32,480 --> 00:46:39,680
Speaker 1: talk to you again really soon. Text stuff is a

789
00:46:39,680 --> 00:46:40,600
Speaker 1: production of my heart.