5G Seen as Enabling Communications for Drones, Say Panelists at CES
LAS VEGAS -- The drone industry is moving forward at an accelerated pace, panelists said Thursday at CES, with 5G expected to help their deployment. Two Trump administration officials were expected to speak on the panel, but canceled because of the government shutdown (see 1901100048). As in recent years, a large number of drones were on display at CES.
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Speakers noted drones continue to get negative publicity. This week, Heathrow Airport in London was temporarily shut after officials spotted an unidentified drone.
“I think we’ve all spoken about the advantages of 5G and latency” and the 3rd Generation Partnership Project is addressing unmanned aerial vehicle operations in its 5G standards work, said Kimberly Darrin, AT&T director-public policy. “As we’ve been talking about at this conference, 5G is the great enabler and will only be beneficial to the drone industry.” AT&T is using drones to provide coverage during disasters and wants to deliver drone services to consumers, Darrin said. “There are so many exciting and innovative use cases.”
While 5G can be used to communicate with drones, other big issues remain, said Brendan Schulman, vice president-policy and legal affairs at drone manufacturer DJI. “From the aviation regulator point of view … you still need to show that the drone operation is safe, particularly if it’s flying beyond visual line of sight,” he said. “You’ll also have to show you’re not going to hit traditional manned aircraft.”
The “first step” for drone companies is to work with policymakers, Schulman said. “In some respects, there aren’t too many manufacturers who are doing what we’re doing, which is to engage with policymakers around the world and try to make sure that the outcomes during a pretty sensational time for negative public perception and media” are the right ones. As with incidents at Heathrow, initial media reports are always negative, he said. After further investigation in other incidents, the alleged drones were found to be “plastic bags or birds or balloons or nothing,” he said.
Security and remote ID have become the most important issues, Schulman said. Safety officials want to know the drone is in the air and identify who's flying it, he said. Drone policy is already unfolding at a slower pace than the technology, he said. U.S. policymakers have led the world on UAV policy, he said: “The United States is in a good place right now and we hope to see more. We hope to see a night rule, flight over people, and other operations.”
Yariv Bash, CEO of Israeli drone company Flytrex, said drone delivery of goods to consumers has been popular in initial tests. “The public is generally excited,” Bash said. “There are always concerns about privacy, security, safety. … Once people start using this service, they’re very, very happy to get their goods really fast.”