Federal regulators split on robot tech
Approval of drones lags, but autonomous cars get lots of encouragement
The U.S. Department of Transportation has recently issued regulations for two emerging technologies that have drawn intense interest and money from Silicon Valley: drones and selfdriving cars. That’s normally a good thing for the industry: The sooner that federal agencies set rules and standards, the faster companies can bring these technologies to the market.
But the feds appear more interested in getting autonomous vehicles onto roads as soon as possible, which is why companies including Ford and Volvo boldly predict that they will roll out self-driving cars in just five years. Uber and Google also are testing such vehicles. Such optimism is largely missing from the drone industry. Advocates have complained that the Federal Aviation Administration has been dragging its feet, a frustration that has prompted some com-
panies to test drones overseas rather than in the United States.
Why such mixed signals from Washington? After all, self-driving cars and drones both have the potential to transform transportation by getting people or products to destinations faster and more efficiently. However, analysts say that drones carry a more negative connotation with the public, while self-driving cars offer more obvious, immediate benefits.
“The vehicles meet a lot of the needs that people have now,” said Rebecca Lindland, a senior analyst with Kelley Blue Book. Consumers seem more open to self-driving cars because they can help prevent dangerous, distracted driving and allow people to multitask while a computer operates the vehicles, she said.
The first time many Americans heard about drones was when the U.S. military started to use Reaper and Predator unmanned aircraft to kill terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan, UPS Foundation president Eduardo Martinez told me during a drone demonstration in May. People also have come to fear that drones will violate their privacy by shooting video or snapping pictures from the air.
So it makes sense for the government to go slow on green-lighting the technology. But drone advocates want the agency in charge of policing the drones to move faster.
The FAA oversees manned aircraft, and keeping up with rapidly evolving technology from Silicon Valley doesn’t necessarily mesh with the agency’s conservative culture, said Tom McMahon, vice president of advocacy for the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International in Arlington, Va.
Even though Congress asked the FAA to write rules for drones in 2012, progress has been slow. Until recently, the FAA would approve commercial drone use only if operators held a pilot’s license. In June, the agency finally issued rules that allow people to operate drones if they can pass knowledge tests and a background check. However, people can fly drones only up to 400 feet, during the day, and away from people.
Unsurprisingly, the U.S. is falling behind other countries in drone use.
Poland is considered the best place to operate drones among the 15 countries where they are most common, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The country already provides licenses for drones operated from a remote location, without requiring that the pilot be able to see the aircraft. In addition, Poland’s insurance carriers offer full liability coverage for drones and operators.
The United States ranks 12th, ahead of only Japan, Russia and Argentina, in encouraging drone use. Advocates would like to fly higher, and out of sight — despite the public’s reservations.
“There is a feeling within the industry the FAA should be moving faster,” McMahon said. “Even the FAA would agree that they are behind, that they have a lot of catching up to do.”
The FAA could not be reached for comment Friday.
As for self-driving cars, the Obama administration has aggressively moved to promote the technology. This year Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx requested from Congress $4 billion over 10 years to accelerate the development of autonomous vehicles.
And last month, Foxx issued the agency’s first Federal Automated Vehicles Policy that sets clear expectations for developing and using automated vehicles.
Fox argues that self-driving cars can go a long way toward reducing the number of roughly 30,000 people who die every year in the United States from car accidents.
“Automated vehicles have the potential to save thousands of lives, driving the single biggest leap in road safety that our country has ever taken,” Foxx said in a statement.
Lex Kerssemakers, the CEO of Volvo USA, told me last week that the autonomous vehicles policy and Foxx’s statements of support are big reasons that he thinks the United States will be the global leader in self-driving cars.
“Autonomous vehicles are getting the space to develop in the United States,” he said. “Foxx is ahead of Europe. I haven’t seen similar movement” from European regulators.
And according to a recent survey by Kelley Blue Book, 63 percent of people say they would be willing to buy a car equipped with advanced autonomous technology within three years.
“The biggest thing we found when we looked at the data was how receptive people would be to the cars in such a short period of time,” Lindland said.