U.S. aviation regulators have approved the first commercial flights of fully automated drones, granting permission to a small Massachusetts-based company to operate drones without practical piloting or direct observation by human controllers or observers.
The Federal Aviation Administration’s decision limits the operation of automated drones to rural areas and altitudes below 400 feet, but is a potentially significant step in expanding commercial drone applications for farmers, utilities, mining companies and other customers.
It also represents a further step in the FAA’s broader effort to authorize widespread flights, moving away from case-by-case exemptions for specific vehicles performing specific tasks.
In approval documents posted Thursday on a government website, the FAA said that once these automatic drone operations are conducted on a larger scale, they could mean “efficiency for many of the industries that feed our economy, such as agriculture, mining, transport ”and manufacturing segments.
The FAA previously allowed drones to inspect railroad tracks, pipelines, and some industrial sites beyond the sight of pilots or ground observers, as long as these individuals were relatively close.