Dominos Pizza, Amazon and Workhorse are just a few of the companies looking to use drones for deliveries. A new Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rule is about to pave the way for much wider adoption of drone technology.
According to the Federal Register, the FAA put forward a rule Thursday that would allow it to identify and track most drones in operation. According to the document, the rule will “require the remote identification of unmanned aircraft systems. The remote identification of unmanned aircraft systems in the airspace of the United States would address safety, national security, and law enforcement concerns regarding the further integration of these aircraft into the airspace of the United States while also enabling greater operational capabilities.”
The rule would apply to the vast majority of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) with very few exceptions. Some of those exceptions would be amateur-built UAS, unmanned aircraft weighing less than 0.55 pounds and UAS operated by the U.S. government.
While some UAS operators may balk at more regulation, the rule should help spur drone adoption by “creating situational awareness of all UAS flying in the airspace of the United States, which would allow additional and more complex UAS operations to take place.”