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Drones: The Commercial Era (talk at Stanford)

Discussion in 'Announcements' started by Steve Maller, Mar 20, 2013.

  1. Steve Maller

    Steve Maller UAV Grief Counselor

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    Last night I attended a very topical event at Stanford University. It was hosted by VLAB, an alliance between MIT and Stanford. There were at least 250 or so people there from all parts of this field. Lots of investor types and VC-looking folks. The panelists were hand-picked to represent the current state of the business, and their observations were very interesting. The session was moderated by Chris Anderson, who delivered a number of intriguing data points. One surprise to me was that he is personally forecasting the single largest opportunity for commercial drone stuff is in agriculture. Later he hedged saying, "I know I'm wrong."

    He also led a spirited discussion of "the 800 pound gorilla in the room", which is that the FAA seem to have deemed commercial UAV operation as not within their definition of legal operation.But the most encouraging part of the evening was when all the panelists pointed out that the large aerospace contractors who have traditionally made most of their revenue from defense contracts) are under pressure to find new markets. And these markets are going to be commercial drone applications. So they're going to aim their substantial lobbying resources at the various statehouses and Washington, DC to enact protections for commercial UAV use. Who knows precisely what form this will take, but they all shared a high degree of confidence that it will happen soon.

    They also pointed out a conundrum which partially explains some of the confusion over the airspace issues. In their understanding, it boils down the the FAA being responsible for the safety of the airspace, but local jurisdictions being responsible for issues such as privacy. So they're having to figure out a way to dovetail these two orthogonal issues. Which government does badly.

    It was a very worthwhile use of my time, and I came away encouraged.

    Here is the VLAB page with links to the speakers and their websites: http://www.vlab.org/article.html?aid=463

    (PS: IMHO this post should be cross-posted to PARCAP)
     
    Dave King, Howard Dapp and MIke Magee like this.
  2. Steve Maller

    Steve Maller UAV Grief Counselor

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    Chris also referred to civilian drones as "the peace dividend of the cellphone wars".
     
  3. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    Interesting to read that: "In their understanding, it boils down the the FAA being responsible for the safety of the airspace, but local jurisdictions being responsible for issues such as privacy."

    So riddle me this? Why have the FAA delayed the NPRM because of privacy concerns?

    Andy.
     
  4. Steve Maller

    Steve Maller UAV Grief Counselor

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    I think
    I think the confusion over who's responsible for what is contributing to the lack of progress. And now that debate is going on in Congress on a variety of fronts, it's probably going to be even stickier.

    And this sort of news coverage doesn't help much:

    Drones crash (a lot) but the military's safety lessons may help civilians
    http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/t...s-safety-lessons-may-help-civilians-1C8932488
     

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