Amazon trying to fight FAA regulations

BRIANNA HARRINGTON
BUSINESS EDITOR
@BNH1995

Amazon is working on a project that will let consumers receive their deliveries in under a day.
No more waiting for the package to arrive at your door. With Amazon Prime Air, a drone will carry your package to you in record time.

Sophomore, Casey Orr, is extremely supportive of this innovative technology.

“I think it is really cool,” Orr said. “There is no reason for so many regulations. Technology is alwasy advancing, so it is not like this should be a suprise.”

However, this bright future might never come to light.

At a conference with Business Insider, Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos stated that the only thing holding back the realization of the Amazon Prime Air project were regulations.

Amazon is fighting with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to get approval to test the drones outside to make sure that they work.

The FAA has imposed rules that have put a damper on plans for now.

They have proposed that drone pilots must be certified to man aircrafts, the drones operate only during the day, and that the drones operate below 400 feet and in view of the operator at all times.

Another roadblock in the path to drone carriers is the public.

A New York Times poll found that only 21 percent of people favored commercial use of drones, while 43 percent opposed them altogether, and 35 percent were neutral.

Along with these results, the poll showed that only one in four people thought that using drones to deliver packages was a good idea.

This lack of support may be supported by the fact that the introduction of these drones escalates an ongoing debate about the safety of commercial drones and privacy concerns, as stated by Time Magazine.

However, Amazon’s idea is no longer unique to them. Other companies are investing in this technology, and one of the frontrunners is Google.

American companies are not the only ones to try their hands at these advancements either.

In China, where regulations are a little less strict, a company called Alibaba beat Amazon to the punch.

One of Alibaba’s companies, Taobao Marketplace has conducted a 3-day test run to deliver tea to its customers.
It is expected that this company will use drones for commercial use very soon, while Amazon struggles behind.