Citron said that UPS’ performance on
hospital and college grounds will help
determine how quickly regulators will
approve consumer deliveries.
“If everything works well, it gives them
legitimacy to move into the residential space
more quickly,” he said, “but if there are some
major crashes or incidents it could slow down
the approval process. It’s going to be an
important test bed.”
In the U.S., drone operators have been frustrated
by the lack of FAA regulations to allow drones
to fly over urban and suburban areas, and to set
rules for remote identification of drones. The
latter rule would help law enforcement agencies,
which were given authority under a law passed
last year to track, intercept and destroy drones
that they deem a security threat.