Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx calls this “one of the most dramatic periods of change in the history of transportation,” NPR reports. Though Foxx was including other innovations with outsized impacts (notably self-driving cars, which I’ve written about a lot), the number of drones is set to expand by 30 times its current size within a year.
Why Expect 580,000 More Commercial Drones?
A new regulation will make owning a commercial drone far easier, dramatically boosting industry interest. NPR explains the impact of the law: Over 3,000 people preregistered to take the drone certification test on just the exact day the rule was implemented, so you can see there’s a strong appeal. According to Douglas Johnson, vice president for technology policy at the Consumer Technology Association, the increase in drones will continue for another decade, though the explosion anticipated in 2017 will slow down: “If the federal government continues to embrace drone technology policy that balances safety and innovation,” he stated, “by 2025 our country will reach one million drone flights per day.”
