E-commerce giant Amazon is testing its delivery drones at a secret site not far from the US border, in British Columbia, Canada, according to a new report, as the company has grown impatient with the pace of drone-flight approval in the US.
Amazon has gained
permission from the Canadian government to work on its Prime Air
delivery UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), which can reportedly
take off from the ground and land vertically as well as fly
horizontally, the Guardian
reported in an exclusive look at the testing facility.
Amazon’s supposedly secret spot 2,000 feet from the US border is
stocked with a “formidable team of roboticists, software
engineers, aeronautics experts and pioneers in remote sensing –
including a former NASA astronaut and the designer of the wingtip
of the Boeing 787,” the Guardian added.
The team has been assembled to work on various delivery drone
capabilities for Amazon, including: “Sensors that can detect
and avoid obstacles in a drone’s path; link-loss procedures that
control the aircraft should its connection with base be broken;
stability in wind and turbulence; and environmental impact.”
As each of these new features is achieved, a new Prime Air
prototype will be developed.
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“We are going to end up with unique shapes, unique vehicles.
The most important part is to develop strong confidence that our
system is safe and that we can demonstrate that to
customers,” said Gur Kimchi, the architect and leader of the
Prime Air project.
“You can build a very different world. It can be faster, and
safer, and more economic and more environmentally friendly – all
of those things, all at the same time.”
Amazon said Prime Air would carry packages weighing up to 5 lbs
(2.25 kg) over distances greater than 10 miles (16 km) at 50 mph
in a “slice of virgin airspace,” the Guardian wrote,
“above 200ft, where most buildings end, and below 500ft,
where general aviation begins.”
The pace of US regulators
Amazon’s moves in Canada come as US federal agencies – especially
the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) – are currently
compiling rules and protocol to safely integrate unmanned
aircraft systems into American skies with the goal of proposing a
structure this year.
Pursuant to the 2012 Federal Aviation Administration
Modernization and Reform Act, the FAA is obliged to finally
incorporate drones – with supposed privacy protections – into US
air traffic by September 30, 2015, though it is highly unlikely
that the deadline will be met. Even once proposed, the definitive
version of commercial drone regulation will likely take years.
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“Different laws and regulatory structures in other nations
may allow them to act more quickly to approve certain UAS [drone]
operations,” an FAA spokesman told the Guardian.
“Everything we do is safety-oriented, and we base our
approvals for unmanned aircraft operations on an assessment of
the risks to other aircraft and to people and property on the
ground. We have been working diligently with Amazon to get the
information we need.”
Last week, Amazon criticized federal regulators for the slow
approval process. Days prior, the FAA said it would allow Amazon
to test drone flights under certain conditions, but Amazon said
that certain prototype was already out of date.
“We don’t test it anymore. We’ve moved on to more advanced
designs that we already are testing abroad,” Paul Misener,
Amazon.com’s vice president for global public policy, said in
testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Aviation Operations,
Safety and Security.
“Nowhere outside of the United States have we been required
to wait more than one or two months to begin testing,”
Misener added, omitting the fact that Amazon was testing its
drones just outside of America’s borders.
US drone rules
Existing FAA regulations allow Americans to fly small drones for
recreational use at least 8 km (5 miles) away from any airport
and at an altitude no more than 120 meters (400 feet).
Drone use is prohibited at night, and a drone operator must
always keep the UAV in sight.
The FAA might soon propose a “risk-based” blanket
exemption from regulations for small drones weighing less than
2.25kg (5 lbs). Neighboring Canada has already approved such an
exemption for small UAVs.
Unauthorized use of
private UAVs near airports and at high altitudes among manned
aircraft currently remains the principal headache for civil
aviation. From June to November 2014, there were at least 25
episodes when drones came close or nearly collided with manned
aircraft, the Washington Post reported in late November.
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Draft FAA drone regulations ban ‘out of sight’ use of civilian
UAVs
The FAA has said about 7,500 commercial drones will be in the US
skies within five years once regulations go into effect. Numerous
US companies like Amazon
want to begin testing out drones for commercial purposes.
Already, more than 750 companies have requested exemptions from
the FAA so they can circumvent the ban on UAVs, but the agency
has only fulfilled 50 of them.
The agency has allowed some commercial drones to fly in American
skies. In June, the FAA
granted the first commercial drone license to oil giant BP.
In September, six
Hollywood production companies were granted licenses to use
drones while filming television shows and movies.
Meanwhile, the FAA has largely told other users, such as
photographers and videographers,
to cease their drone flights or face fines. Raphael Pirker was
fined $10,000 by the FAA for flying his Ritewing Zephyr drone he
was using to shoot a video on the University of Virginia campus
in 2011. He appealed the fine, but the National Transportation
Safety Board later agreed
with the FAA in November 2014, stating that current federal
regulations defining aircraft as “any device … used for
flight in the air” applies to “any aircraft, manned or
unmanned, large or small.”
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures,
20 US states have laws that guide unmanned aerial systems (UAS)
usage. Various laws address what a UAS, UAV, or drone is; how
government agencies or law enforcement can use them; how the
public can use them; how they can be used for hunting; and for
use at official FAA test sites around the US.
Last week, it was reported
that US Sen. Cory Booker is set to unveil a drone bill — the
‘Commercial UAV Modernization Act’ — that would allow companies
to operate small, unmanned drones for several reasons, including
mapping crop sites and surveying construction sites. The bill,
with lower standards than the FAA is currently considering, would
only serve as a temporary guideline until the federal agency has
more solid rules ready to go.