1000s of drones in the air in this country already and United Drones plans to produce 7 drones a week by this time next year. Amazing how fast this is getting approved. How many mid-airs will there be?
http://uniteddrones.com/
A couple weeks ago I attended the "Drone World Expo" in San Jose CA.
The lead off keynote address was "Avoiding the Traffic Jam: A government and Industry UTM Update". Speakers were:
FAA - Hoot Gibson, Senior Advisor on UAS Integration.
NASA - Parimal "PK" Kopardekar, Manager, Safe Autonomous System Operations (SASO) Project
Google X - Dr Dave Vos, Project Wing Project Lead
Verizon Ventures - David Famolari, Director
The most interesting takeaways from the keynote for me was that the FAA wants to move slowly and cautiously in integrating drones into the airspace. Google was exactly the opposite, saying the concern for drones in the airspace was over blown and that it would all work out safely. But most importantly Google is not willing to wait decades or even years. They are willing to wait months. Google made it a point, over and over and over and over, and was quite emphatic that they ARE NOT willing to wait years or decades. I certainly understood Google's comments as they won't wait.
I made it a point to look over at Hoot Gibson every time Google said this, trying to get a sense as to what he thought about Google's position, but Hoot would make a good poker player.