Amazon Drone Delivery Update 2015: Amazon Prime Air to Hold Off, For Now
New rules by the Federal Aviation Administration could prevent Amazon from performing deliveries with drones, USAToday reports.
Amazon is still looking forward to performing deliveries using Prime Air, the program that will someday be able to deliver Amazon goods via drones.
Paul Misener, Amazon's vice president for global policy, is asking the FAA to create rules allowing Prime Air to deliver packages by using drones.
"The FAA needs to begin and expeditiously complete the formal process to address the needs of our business, and ultimately our customers,'' he said. "We are committed to realizing our vision for Prime Air and are prepared to deploy where we have the regulatory support we need."
The FAA created the rules on drones Sunday. They said drones cannot fly over people not involved in the drone operations and that the drones need to be flown by someone on the ground who can keep an eye on its flight.
"That means we really are not talking about unmanned aerial vehicles. We are talking about something that has to have a person. It defeats the whole purpose," said Michael E. Drobac, executive director of the Small UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) Coalition.
Amazon would likely want the drones to fly on their own and not have to be flown by someone on the ground.
The FAA said in a press release they "tried to be flexible" when they wrote the new rules, according to Time.
"We want to maintain today's outstanding level of aviation safety without placing an undue regulatory burden on an emerging industry," FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said.
Drobac said the U.S. must catch up with other countries using drones for commercial use.
"We are not catching up with this. ... We are still probably going to need an act of Congress,'' Drobac said.
The new rules are expected to take up to two years to become laws, and Sen. Charles Schumer of New York called for the FAA to modify them before they are finalized.
What do you think? Should Amazon be allowed to deliver packages with drones?
Subscribe to Latin Post!
Sign up for our free newsletter for the Latest coverage!
* This is a contributed article and this content does not necessarily represent the views of latinpost.com