Drones In Everyday Life – The Wave Is Building

There are two really cool things happening in drones right now.  I started DroneOS with Anders Brownworth earlier this year because we believe that great things are going to happen in this space.  Just as we are seeing in the military, drones can do things that people and manned vehicles cannot.  So it will be in the commercial space.

The US airspace remains highly regulated (and perhaps rightfully so for now), which means that commercial drones are not allowed to fly out of line of sight of the pilot.  However, in other countries this is not necessarily the case.

This week I read about Matternet, a company that is using quad-copter drones to deliver life-saving medicine throughout Africa.  Matternet’s mission is, in their words, to “alleviate poverty and accelerate economic growth for the rising billion through a roadless transportation network.”  Imagine food, medicine, and other every day necessities escaping the boundary of roads and being delivered via more industrial-strength unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).  This is obviously very compelling, and with Matternet we are seeing the possibilities emerging.

The second development in recent weeks is that there is an “all drone” airport being opened in Wales.  This is the first airport exclusively for UAVs in the world.  Imagine an airport as busy as Atlanta or (even better) Memphis (with all of that Fedex traffic), only all of the flights are unmanned.  We will see this in our lifetime, and probably within the next ten years.  Similarly, a request is before the Oklahoma state legislature to have an 80-mile drone corridor primarily for defense-related activities.

When Anders and I started DroneOS, we saw the possibility to radically alter package delivery, traffic and news gathering, search and rescue, and other traditionally human-intensive activities.  While the US is saying it will be 2025 before there is regulated airspace in the US for drones, the rest of the world is starting to make way for drones in everyday life.

What are your thoughts on the use of commercial drones in US airspace?  What industries do you see benefiting from the use of drones?