As drones go global — where does the U.S. stand?
New regulations for Japan’s drone ecosystem are reported to be on the way, part of the country’s ongoing campaign to open the skies to high-scale, commercial drone operations.
Japan is moving quickly to make the most of the world’s growing drone industry, expected to create more than $127B in economic benefits. Last year, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promised that the Japanese government would create regulations to allow regular drone deliveries in rural areas in 2018, and in Tokyo and other urban centers by the 2020 Olympics.
This ambitious approach to drone regulation is one of the reasons why AirMap has partnered with Rakuten, Japan’s largest ecommerce and tech company, to deliver airspace management services to the country’s drone community. With the support of regulators, Rakuten has proven how drone technologies can benefit Japanese customers in their daily lives, including a month-long test of Sora Raku drone deliveries to real customers at a Chiba City golf course.
Japan isn’t the only country using regulation to welcome drones, opening the door to drone deliveries and other complex drone use cases. I’ve written before about Zipline — the U.S.-based company whose delivery drones transport blood to rural hospitals in Rwanda, one of the first high-scale drone delivery initiatives. And in China, drone deliveries began in rural areas in 2016. Now, Chinese ecommerce giant JD.com has established more than 100 routes over mainland China, and reportedly halved the cost of their deliveries by using unmanned aircraft.
In France, Delair-Tech has conducted commercial drone flights over distances of more than 30 miles, beyond visual line of sight. Closer to home, Drone Delivery Canada has tested BVLOS drone deliveries in the aptly named town of Foremost, Alberta.
Unlike most other industries, the drone ecosystem is eager for more regulation. To open airspace previously closed to unmanned aircraft, we need new guidelines for pilot certification, drone registration, flights over people, and other airspace issues. That gives regulators tremendous influence over the future of the drone industry.
Across the globe, governments are using regulation to enable complex drone operations and ensure that the drone industry can test solutions to make flights even safer, more secure, and more efficient. Drones are delivering packages — and inspecting construction sites, monitoring agricultural production, gathering aerial data, and more.
While the pace varies worldwide, some countries are undeniably pulling into the lead in the race to develop drone regulations. When the U.S. enacted Part 107 and established the remote pilot certification process in the summer of 2016, it was one of the first countries to open the skies for commercial drone activities. Since then, however, much has changed.
Last week at NASA Ames, we celebrated the successful conclusion of the U.S. TCL2 trials, demonstrating Unmanned Traffic Management technologies to support live, BVLOS flights. It’s an important milestone, but these kinds of flights are becoming commonplace abroad. Countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East have caught up to — and in some cases, surpassed — the U.S. At the same time, we’ve seen American drone companies test their most sophisticated solutions internationally, where regulations permit more experimentation and innovation.
NASA and the FAA should be commended for their work thus far, but we also must recognize that other nations are mobilizing more quickly and acting more decisively to make way for drones.
The competition abroad is heating up. It’s time for the U.S. to ask: are we being ambitious enough?
