Tis the season where packages get left on doorsteps on a daily basis. However, a few years ago, it was predicted that drones would be delivering these packages, but that isn’t quite the case yet. Amazon famously made its first drone deliver back in December 2016. Since then, there hasn’t been a great deal of movement.
According to TechXplore, “overcoming the regulatory hurdles and safety issues posed by drones appears to be a challenge even for the world’s wealthiest man. The result is a blown deadline on his claim to CBS’ ’60 Minutes’ in December 2013 that drones would be making deliveries within five years.”
However, drone usage has been on the rise. TechXplore notes, “The government estimates that about 110,000 commercial drones are operating in U.S. airspace, and the number is expected to soar to about 450,000 in 2022. They are being used in rural areas for mining and agriculture, for inspecting power lines and pipelines, and for surveying.”
It seems that part of the issue with getting drone delivery services off the ground is their short battery life. “If you have to recharge them every other hour, then you need so many drones and you have to orchestrate that,” according to TechXplore.
“Analysts say it will take years for the Federal Aviation Administration to write all the rules to allow widespread drone deliveries,” TechXplore states.
So it seems like we will have to wait a few more years before our packages are dropped on our door from out of the sky.
Filed Under: Aerospace + defense
