Amazon, is its intriguing plan to use drones to some day deliver stuff to our homes, is champing at the bit to get flying.
Along with scores of other drone-dreaming American companies Amazon has been increasingly frustrated by the Federal Aviation Administration’s perceived feet-dragging as it works up plans of its own to regulate the commercial use of unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs. And now the Seattle-based online-retail behemoth has amped up its tough talk.
According to a post in Bloomberg, Amazon has sent a missive to the FAA with a clear warning shot across the bow: let us test out our delivery drones in the United States – or we’ll take out toys and go play in some other country.
told U.S. regulators that it has begun testing deliveries by unmanned aircraft, or drones, in other countries and will divert more research abroad if the government doesn’t let it conduct such tests locally.
In a Dec. 7 letter to the , Amazon, the largest Internet retailer, urged the agency to quickly grant the Seattle-based company permission to test drones outside of laboratories in Washington state. The company proposes to fly the drones on private property in a rural area, supervised by trained pilots, according to the letter, which was a response to questions from the FAA.
CEO Jeff Bezos first unveiled the company’s ambitious and almost science-fiction-sounding plan on 60 Minutes a year ago.
Since then, the FAA has continued to mull over ways to regulate the use of drones by everyone from oil companies, who want to use them to inspect wells and pipelines, to realtors, who want to harness drone technology to provide aerial previews of real estate for sale. Amazon’s plans, though, have received the most interest from the public, perhaps because the idea of somehow using UAVs to carry items in the sky from warehouse to our house is still so mind-boggling.
Amazon, however, seems determined to make it happen. And to do that, it needs to be able to test the idea here in the United States.
Amazon, which unveiled plans to use drones last year, said it wants them to deliver light packages to customers in 30 minutes or less. In July, Amazon sought permission to test the drones outdoors, based on an FAA request for comments on possible exemptions to its ban on commercial drone operations. The latest letter expressed concern that the FAA may be impeding technology innovation in the U.S.
“In the absence of timely approval by the FAA to conduct outdoor testing, we have begun utilizing outdoor testing facilities outside the ,” , Amazon’s vice president of global policy, wrote in the letter. “It is our continued desire to also pursue fast-paced innovation in the United States, which would include the creation of high-quality jobs and significant investment in the local community.”
Meanwhile, the FAA says it’s considering Amazon’s appeal.
“The agency has designated an inspector to work closely with representatives from Amazon on its request for an experimental certificate to conduct research and development of unmanned aircraft,” the agency said in an e-mail. “The FAA is currently waiting for additional information from the company to complete the application. Since 2005, the FAA has issued over 200 initial and recurrent experimental research and development certificates to unmanned aircraft operations.”
Still, the company has an uphill battle in its efforts to take to the skies.
Amazon’s proposed deliveries won’t be permitted initially in the U.S., according to a Nov. 7, 2013, FAA document outlining the types of commercial drone flights it expects to allow. The agency said it wouldn’t permit commercial drone flights without a pilot at the controls, and Amazon has said it wants to have its package-delivery drone fly automatically.
Credit: USA Today
