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In her speech “Time for delivery” at the aviation summit in Brussels in January 2016, European Commissioner for transport Violeta Bulc announced that this year the Commission will deliver a proposal for a basic legal framework for the safe use of drones at the European level. EU-wide rules will materialise the European Commission’s aviation strategy revealed in the EC 2014 communication and, as many hope, boost the market while building confidence in drones’ manufacturers and users. Unfortunately, the Commission does not have a magic stick that would instantly create a well-balanced and sustainable EU regulatory landscape. Up until now, member states’ steps towards smart regulation have been slow and, as it will be shown below, a daunting task for many of them, in particular for the small ones.
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Things that caught our eye
In 2013, Amazon announced that they would start delivering products directly to their customers via drones – Amazon Prime Air. Purchasers would no longer have to wait for days until their order arrived, but could choose the speedy option and drones would deliver everything within hours to their doorstep. “Convenience” was the buzzword pushing forward this project but back then nobody was sure if that would be legal as according to the FAA drones were not allowed to be used for commercial purposes. Here’s to the FAA pleading for exemption from this clause. In March this year, the FAA finally allowed Amazon to test their new delivery system which is a big step forward…
And just last week more good news, Amazon’s patent for their Prime Air Delivery System was published the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Is it just a matter of time now, that goods aren’t just purchasable at our fingertips but also deliverable within the hour? Stay tuned, we will be following the developments closely.
For further information on the Prime Air patent click here.
Things that caught our eye
The BBC has a piece describing how to catch a drone. One of the options is to use another drone with a net to catch the intruding drone. A simple but brilliant technology. In the video below you can see a French “interceptor drone” at work.
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Drones are in the news. Or more accurately, their pilots and the people annoyed by them. The French Local has a story about an Israeli tourist flying a drone over the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris:
“The 24-year-old tourist had launched the drone, equipped with a Go-Pro camera, above the famous Gothic church on Wednesday morning, and sent it hovering over the historic Hotel Dieu hospital and a police station, a police source told AFP.”
The French police arrested him and made him spend the night in jail. The Israeli tourist was also given a hefty fine for “operating an aircraft non-compliant with safety laws.”
Another drone-story takes place not in a public space, but in the privacy of someone’s backyard. CBS Philadelphia reports about a New Jersey man being accused of shooting down his neighbor’s drone.
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