New rules set by the FAA's Drone Advisory Committee could be the latest step to open the skies for commercial deliveries.
Based on new guidelines set by the committee late last year, drones will soon be able to fly over people at night under certain conditions, pilots will need to prove competency, and devices will all have to feature anti-collision lights.
Fort Collins, Colorado Mayor Wade Troxell, whose background lies in engineering, is a member of the committee made up of representatives with a wide range of expertise including tech, parcel delivery, and business leadership.
Though human innovation typically outpaces regulation, the great promise that drone technology poses cannot come second to privacy and safety, Troxell told Cheddar.
Companies like Amazon, Walmart, and UPS already are testing ways to ship goods by air this way, from fast food to medical devices, along with other businesses.
“Right now, I think those that are showing high value and that are being used for their business practices are, for example, utilities, and when inspecting the transmission lines over long distances, it’s much safer than the current practices,” he said.
The use of drones also has shown to be fruitful in rail travel with train operators using the technology to assess portions of track laying ahead of them.
So far, the process of establishing a clear set of guidelines for drone operators has been slow, but Troxell said steps are being taken. When it comes to accountability, he explained that the agency is working to have all drones, commercial and personal, operate on remote ID, similar to the tail number on an airplane. If a drone is out of control or poses a threat, the "digital license plate" can then help law enforcement track down its command center.
"It's important that there's some level of control, particularly at the local level, such that we can help manage the safe ways of travel," he said.
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A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
