Amazon announced today at a NASA convention in Mountain View, California its plans for a highway in the air for UAVs. This framework is meant to provide Amazon Prime Air, announced over a year ago, to operate. There are many proposed-and ambitious plans-for UAVs to coordinate with each other while in this highway 200 feet above ground to avoid collisions.
According to Gur Kimchi, Vice President of Amazon Prime Air, UAV manufacturers, operators, enthusiasts, etc. are not coordinating enough with each other and have no strict standards for safe use of UAVs at the moment. A highway meant for UAVs benefits Amazon by revolutionizing delivery systems but infrastructure that governs all other UAVs has gotten other people interested too.
The plan is to segment the space above ground into sections. The lowest segment is from the ground to 200 feet and will be used for "low speed localized traffic" or UAVs which will be used for mapping purposes, scanning structures, and shooting videos. This area will also be the ideal landing areas of Amazon Prime Air drones to their destinations.
The area from 200 feet to 400 feet is the proposed highway. In here, drones travel at high speeds and out of line-of -sight of their operators. The UAVs are also proposed to run autonomously while in the highway. Sophisticated sense-and-avoid technology will be equipped and will be essential in detecting potential collisions with birds, tall buildings, and other UAVs.
Distances from 400 feet to 500 feet are proposed to be no-fly zones. Anything above 500 feet will be against FAA regulations.
At this point, the government initiatives to address UAV use is moving at a much slower pace than the development of drone technology. In February, the FAA put in draft legislation that stated UAV uses will be done during the day and within line-of-sight of the operator. In June, the FAA said it expected formal regulations governing UAV us in 12 months.
