Q&A with Aaron Crews: Current Text IQ General Counsel & VP of Strategy, Former Walmart Senior Associate General Counsel & Global Head of E-Discovery discusses the future of drone delivery services

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is not only one of the largest retailers and employers in the world, but has a logistical supply chain and distribution infrastructure that rivals nation state capabilities. Aaron Crews is currently General Counsel and Vice President of Strategy for Text IQ and previously served as Senior Associate General Counsel, Global Head of E-Discovery and technologist for Walmart. Aaron has a long track record of utilizing technology to address some of the most complex business and legal issues relevant to retailers worldwide.

There’s a lot of hype surrounding the commercial application of drones. Are direct-to-consumer drone delivery services realistic in the immediate future?

Aaron: Yes. The drone technology necessary to enable direct-to-consumer delivery services already exists and is not merely a hypothetical. Commercial drone delivery networks have been successfully deployed in a number of countries for various applications. …

Accessing low-altitude private airspace is not simply a regulatory issue in the U.S., but a constitutional one.

There’s a reason why Amazon and other retailers are not yet delivering packages to American consumers via drone at scale within the United States and it’s not because the Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”), Federal Highway Administration and National Park Services are cumbersome, bureaucratic-entities obstructing technological and social progress.

While regulators certainly have a material role to play in the future success of of commcerial drone services, even if hypothetically there were no regulatory barriers, whatsoever, drones would still be restricted to operating over public property and or at higher altitudes (i.e. regulated airspace above 500 feet). …

A blockchain-based sharing economy would reveal available supply (i.e. host availability) and demand data, while radically increasing consumer choice and host income opportunities.

For the purposes of this discussion, the sharing economy is defined specifically as, “consumers granting temporary access to under-utilized physical assets (‘idle capacity’), possibly for money.” Frenken et al. (2015).

In the current Sharing Economy, hosts and users rely on trusted centralized intermediaries to facilitate host/user pairings, provide reliability barometers, dispute resolution mechanisms and when applicable, ensure compensation. While centralized intermediaries can and certainly do provide material value to the sharing economy, serving as nothing more than digital gatekeepers, deliberately obfuscating supply and demand data, isn’t a component of their long-term value proposition.

“While centralized intermediaries can and certainly do provide material value to the sharing economy, serving as nothing more than digital gatekeepers, deliberately obfuscating supply and demand data, isn’t a component of their long-term value proposition.” …

Drone Delivery and Flight Mapping Using the Blockchain

After months of quiet work from an incredibly talented and immensely dedicated team, it is a true pleasure to unveil AERO Token, an Ethereum-based blockchain technology that will enable a drone highway infrastructure within the United States.

Moving aspects of the sharing economy onto the blockchain, starting with airspace, is a high-impact, real world use of the blockchain that will radically transmogrify the sharing economy.

AERO Token provides the missing technological and legal mechanism necessary to enable and easily facilitate the consent of property owners for low-altitude drone flight over private property.

By utilizing the blockchain, AERO Token enhances the sharing economy by demonstrating that under-utilized assets, airspace over private property, can be easily leveraged to generate income.

Problem:

In the United States, drone operators need permission to fly at low-altitude over private property without trespassing and there is significant demand for commercial drone services (i.e. …

The Future of Commercial Drone Operations Requires a Legal and Technological Mechanism that Enables and Quickly Facilitates Low-Altitude Flights Over Private Property

In 1946, the landmark case, United States v. Causby, 328 U.S. 256 (1946), the Supreme Court issued foundational guidance as to what extent private property owners actually own and may control airspace over their property.

In Causby, a farmer lived adjacent to an airport whereby U.S. military aircraft entered and departed at low-altitude over his property. While interference with the farmer’s property caused direct and indirect economic damage, the Court addressed the seminal issue as to property invasion, trespass and occupation by flying at low-altitude in airspace over their property. The Court stated that landowners have “exclusive control of the immediate reaches of the enveloping atmosphere,” and that “the landowner owns at least as much of the space above the ground as they can occupy or use in connection with the land.” …

A blockchain-based sharing economy would reveal available supply (i.e. host availability) and demand data, while radically increasing consumer choice and host income opportunities.

For the purposes of this discussion, the sharing economy is defined specifically as, “consumers granting temporary access to under-utilized physical assets (‘idle capacity’), possibly for money.” Frenken et al. (2015).

In the current Sharing Economy, hosts and users rely on trusted centralized intermediaries to facilitate host/user pairings, provide reliability barometers, dispute resolution mechanisms and when applicable, ensure compensation. While centralized intermediaries can and certainly do provide material value to the sharing economy, serving as nothing more than digital gatekeepers, deliberately obfuscating supply and demand data, isn’t a component of their long-term value proposition.

“While centralized intermediaries can and certainly do provide material value to the sharing economy, serving as nothing more than digital gatekeepers, deliberately obfuscating supply and demand data, isn’t a component of their long-term value proposition.” …