What’s the difference between a model aircraft you’d take out to the park and fly for your own amusement without having to worry about being fined or penalized by the Federal Aviation Administration, and operating a remote-controlled aircraft that does fall under the regulatory umbrella of the FAA? Earlier this year, a federal administrative law judge said it was pretty clear that model aircrafts of any sort are exempt from FAA oversight, but the National Transportation Safety Board today said the judge was mistaken. [More]
drones
Google Also Plans To Hasten Robot Apocalypse With Delivery Drones
By 8.29.14
Not content to sit idly by while the likes of Amazon, UPS, DHL, and others work to bring about the inevitable robot apocalypse, Google announced last night that it too is getting into the delivery-drones-of-doom game with its Project Wing flying machines. [More]
Disney Wants Drone Patents So Puppets Can Fly Around In Air Shows
By 8.26.14
If the idea of hot air balloon creatures causes you to tremble — all those huge, leering smiles floating above like some kind of slow-moving demons just biding their creepy time — you might not want to think about puppets gamboling around in the sky controlled by drones. That’s exactly the future Disney is envisioning with three drone-related patents it’s working on. [More]
Witnesses Report Drone Allegedly Crashed Into Space Needle, Police Find No Evidence Of Actual Impact
By 7.25.14
Maybe he was just practicing for future drone deliveries? Okay, probably not, but an Amazon employee visiting from out of town allegedly crashed his personal hobby drone into the Space Needle earlier this week. [More]
Amazon Asks FAA For Permission To Blacken The Skies With Delivery Drones
By 7.11.14
Last month, the Federal Aviation Administration laid down a speed bump in the road toward the impending robot apocalypse, clarifying that package-delivery drones like the ones being planned by Amazon and others are currently illegal. But, much like a locked door or a cinderblock wall will not stop a T-1000, a bit of bureaucracy will not stop Amazon from its destiny of creating Skynet Amazon Prime Air. [More]
FAA Delays Robot Uprising, Says No To Amazon Delivery Drones… For Now
By 6.24.14
While the Second Industrial Revolution — by which I mean an actual revolt against humankind by sentient machines — is inevitable, it may be delayed a while after the Federal Aviation Administration is attempting to clarify its authority to regulate the commercial use of small, remote-controlled aircraft and has specifically called out package-delivery drones, like those planned by Amazon and others, as something it currently deems illegal. [More]
UPS Accidentally Delivers Pieces Of A Government Drone To The Wrong Person
By 5.7.14
There are many things one might expect to show up suddenly on your doorstep at some point — in-laws, a baby in a basket with a note — but one New York man was definitely not expecting that UPS would drop off pieces of a government drone like it was just another delivery. [More]
Google Also Seeking To Hasten Robot Apocalypse With Acquisition Of Drone Company
By 4.14.14
In a move that can only logically result in a flying army of sentient, autonomous machines intent on harvesting humans, Google announced today that it is buying startup drone-maker Titan Aerospace. [More]
Will Amazon Get Those Drones After All? Judge Dismisses FAA Fine For Commercial Drone User
By 3.7.14
Chin up, Amazon! Turn that frown upside down, local brewery sending beer through the air! Delivery by commercial drone might still be possible, despite the Federal Aviation Administration going around putting the kibosh on the unmanned aerial vehicles. A federal judge has dismissed the FAA’s only fine against a commercial drone user. [More]
Brave Florists Pioneer Valentine’s Day Deliveries By Tractor, Drone
By 2.14.14
By gosh, it is florists’ sacred mission to get their blooms into the hands of their customers this Valentine’s Day, come hell or high snow. We heard about two pioneering petal-pushers who tried innovative new ways to get flowers out this week. One plan succeeded, but the other failed due to government intervention. [More]
FAA Puts The Kibosh On Thirsty Ice Fishermen’s Dreams By Banning Beer Delivery Drones
By 1.31.14
Have you ever been ice fishing? There you are, out on the frozen expanse, huddled in a shack and focuses all your attention on a hole in the ice. Well, half your attention. The other half is all about talking to your friends and throwing back a beer. But one local brewery got in a spot of trouble for trying to make the beer part easier with a drone that delivered frosty cold drinks right to your ice fishing shack. [More]
Video: Restaurant Mocks Drone Trend, Uses Flying Bot To Chop Celery, Take Out Trash
By 1.3.14
While Amazon and others prepare to darken the skies with the flying robots that will one day enslave all humanity and turn us into organic batteries, some restaurants have already opened the door to the pernicious plague of aerial drones. Now one Austin eatery has produced a video showing all the ways in which it employs the hovering harbingers of the robo-pocalypse. [More]
DHL Uses Drone To Deliver Medicine In Germany
By 12.9.13
We might as well start digging our underground rebel hideouts now and prepare for the inevitable Robot Wars of 2023, as DHL has made the first successful package delivery via flying drone. [More]
Century 21’s ‘Delivery Landing Pads’ Will Give Amazon’s Flying Robot Army A Place To Call Home
By 12.5.13
The future of delivery is not teleportation or 3D printing but rather a sky full of autonomous drones that know where we live, what we buy, and what we want for Christmas, and which will surely someday decimate our numbers by blacking out the sun. So it only makes sense that these doomsday devices should have a pleasant place to land while they silently learn our ways and calculate how best to defeat us in the inevitable war. That’s why Century 21 has unveiled the C21 Delivery Landing Pads, so that our future flying overlords will know exactly which homes are most willing to do their bidding… or something like that. [More]
Oh Look, Someone Wants To Deliver Something Else With A Drone (Burritos) Because Drones!
By 12.4.13
Like some kind of unknown debutante at the ball who ends up dancing with George Clooney at the ball (just go with it), now that Amazon let everyone know that drones are the “it” way to deliver stuff in the future, everyone wants a turn in the spotlight. UPS is looking to dabble into drones as well — so why keep deliveries in boring boxes? [More]
The Robot Wars Begin: UPS Also Looking Into Drone Deliveries
By 12.3.13
Everyone’s talking about how Amazon has secretly been developing an army of delivery drones that will, in my not-at-all paranoid opinion, turn on their creators and begin using human beings as living batteries. But a new report claims that UPS is also working on some creepy copters of its own. [More]
5 Non-Drone Suggestions For Amazon PrimeAir
By 12.2.13
Last night, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos unveiled his not-at-all-fraught-with-problems plan to unleash an autonomous fleet of delivery drones into the air, which he says it at least another two years off because of those wet blankets at the FAA and their silly “rules.” So we thought of a few suggestions that might be doable in the interim. [More]
