Tech Industry to Ask for More Regulatory Leeway for Drone, Robotic Deliveries
As companies like Amazon and UPS test drones to make package deliveries, industry representatives will testify at a House Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection Subcommittee hearing Tuesday that government needs to give companies more leeway in experimenting with emerging technologies in delivering services.
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Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) "deliveries are not held back by innovation, imagination or technology, but by a lack of regulatory clarity," Brian Wynne, president of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, is to say in his testimony. He says "a new national imperative" is needed, including an "appropriately-funded" Federal Aviation Administration to meet staffing needs that will advance the rulemaking process for safe drone integration into the national airspace plus federal investment in FAA IT infrastructure. Over the next five years, the FAA expects more than 400,000 drones could be used for commercial purposes, he will testify.
Shyam Chidamber, senior adviser to drone delivery company Flirtey, says industry needs the FAA to accept risk-based approvals to facilitate deliveries including drone flights over populated areas and beyond the visual line of sight and multiple drones operated by one pilot. The proposed rules haven't been released though the agency grants exemptions (see 1701250027 and 1703140042). "Industry has spent millions of dollars on the technology to build the above capabilities. We just need regulators to let them do it safely, sooner," he will testify. There's "some urgency" since several countries are moving ahead of the U.S. in this area, he adds.
The Drone Advisory Committee is a collaborative effort to help the FAA with drone integration into the national airspace. Wynne says the DAC is providing recommendations on the roles and responsibilities for federal, state and local governments, access to airspace and short-term agency funding (see 1702150063 and 1609160003). "Outstanding issues" are developing a spectrum strategy that will involve the FCC, the NTIA and NASA "and will help ensure that spectrum is available for UAS without inefficiencies or constraints," he adds.
Bastian Lehmann, CEO of on-demand delivery company Postmates, which makes 2 million deliveries monthly in 300 U.S. cities using couriers, says that his company is experimenting with self-driving robots for short-distance deliveries. With "both human hands, and robotic operators now on the ground, commerce across a given town is able to move at even higher rates, with more functional ways to make deliveries" he says Robots would travel at 4 miles per hour on sidewalks and carry 40 pounds within a two-mile radius in real-world scenarios, Lehmann is to say. Testing is needed to understand people's comfort levels with robots and data collection for insight in deciding to scale the use of robots, he will say, adding that using robotics raises questions about workplace transformation and implications for employment.
Georgetown University public policy professor Harry Holzer plans to testify that potential losses of delivery jobs as a result of new drone technologies is "very speculative" in timing and degree and likely won't reverse employment gains, which have been almost 100,000 over the past year with higher-than-average retail wages. "Development of drone technology to deliver products and its adoption by employers remain very uncertain right now and are unlikely to halt or reverse such [job] growth over the next several years," he says.