The FAA has Grounded All Commercial Delivery Drones

If you've been Waiting Breathlessly for the Day When you Could Get a New Gizmo from Amazon or Some Piping Hot Food Delivered Directly to you by Autonomous Drone, you May Need to Put your Plans on Hold for a Little While. Buried Deep Inside an FAA Document Seeking Public Comment on Drones, or "Model Aircraft" as the FAA likes to Call them, is a Statement which Says that, "delivering of packages to people for a fee" is Banned.


And just in Case you Think that you Can Get around the "for a fee" Part with your Amazon PrimeAir Account's Free Shipping Clause, Forget it, because the Statement specifically Rules that Out too. Back in March a Federal Court Gave the Green Light to Commercial Drones, by Throwing Out an FAA Fine Handed Out to a Commercial Drone User. This Makes it Sound like, there could be a Real Fight Brewing over Jurisdiction and Whether the FAA has the Right to Set Rules for the Tiny Drones. For Now, Hobbyist Drones Remain Perfectly Legal so, it's Hard to Make a Safety Based Argument When it's Only Commercial Drones (Drones that People Get Paid to Fly) that are being Restricted.


Clearly, this Mess will Need to be Untangled before Amazon PrimeAir Drones Start Buzzing around Neighborhoods. There Have been a Number of Close Calls between Drones and Larger Aircraft Recently and it Seems like it would Only be a Matter of Time before Some Disaster Occurs. So, it's Obviously in Everyone's Best Interests to Get the Rules and Jurisdiction Nailed Down, before we All Start Getting Buzzed by Quadcopters Carrying a Couple of Large Pepperoni Pizzas to our Neighbor's World Cup Party.




Info Sources:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/06/faa-grounds-amazons-drone-delivery-plans

http://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/uas/media/model_aircraft_spec_rule.pdf