Recently Amazon CEO announced a rather ambitious project that the company has been working on for quite some time. It is called Amazon Prime Air, the aim is to deliver packages of up to five pounds within 30 minutes, to do that, the company plans on using drones. When the project was announced, the company released a video of a drone making a delivery, it was promo that offered a glimpse of what Amazon plans to achieve. However due to FAA regulations, Amazon couldn’t even shoot the video in the U.S. Both the company and the FAA have confirmed to the Washington Post that the Seattle based outfit had to shoot the video outside the United States.
Despite confirming that the video was shot at an international location, it hasn’t been revealed exactly which country Amazon opted for. While rules and regulations regarding commercial and public use of drones are much relaxed in other countries such as Canada, FAA isn’t due to issue its regulations on the matter until 2015. An exception exists for hobbyists who can receive a special certificate from the FAA. Full commercial drones aren’t likely to receive the agency’s blessing until after 2015. So even if its an American company that’s putting in a lot of time, money and resources into a commercial drone delivery project, the absence of a regulatory framework is bound to create a few hurdles for it.
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