The announcement at a White House
event said the US tech giant would participate in safety research through
Project Wing, which is part of the "moonshot" unit called X created
last year when Google was reorganized under Alphabet.
Project Wing will work at one of the
six research centers set up by the Federal Aviation Administration for drone tests
and its data "will be shared with government partners to help regulators
answer critical safety and human factor questions for (drone) cargo delivery
operations," a White House statement said.
At the "White House Drone
Day" event, officials announced steps toward expanding rules for drone
operations, including for newsgathering and commercial flights over populated
areas, after a first set of regulations unveiled in June.
"We hope to propose a rule on unmanned
aircraft operations over people by the end of this year," FAA
administrator Michael Huerta said.
A White House statement said the FAA
"is working on the next regulatory steps for safely integrating (drones)
in the airspace" for "beneficial uses of drones near crowds, such as
aerial photography or videography for newsgathering; for certain types of
infrastructure inspection; and other applications."
The FAA said it was launching an
Unmanned Aircraft Safety Team "that will include a wide variety of
stakeholders from the drone and aviation industries" to study the
proposals and was establishing a Drone Advisory Committee that will be chaired
by Intel chief executive Brian Krzanich.
"We need to incorporate unmanned
aircraft and their users into our culture of safety and responsibility. But we
need to do it in a way that doesn't stifle the enthusiasm for this growing
industry," Huerta said.
"We've found that the best way to
accomplish this is to partner with a wide range of government, aviation and
technology stakeholders."
Onward, upward
Huerta said the government has
registered more than 500,000 hobby drones in eight months, but sees a need for
more rules for commercial operators.
A first set of rules unveiled in June,
and taking effect August 29, allows unmanned aircraft weighing less than 55
pounds (25 kilograms) to fly in sparsely occupied areas, up to 400 feet (120
meters) high during the day.
Officials say drones offer the
potential for vast economic benefits—estimated by the industry to generate more
than $82 billion for the US economy and support some 100,000 new jobs by 2025.
"Unmanned aircraft are
transforming industries—providing filmmakers with a fresh angle on the world,
and giving first responders a new tool for search-and-rescue operations,"
Huerta said.
"They're improving the safety of
our transportation infrastructure—inspecting miles of rail tracks and pipelines
that crisscross our country. And they're tackling jobs that can be dangerous
for people or other aircraft to do."
Announced at the event was the
allocation of $35 million in research funding by the National Science
Foundation over the next five years to study the beneficial applications of
drones for disaster response, agricultural monitoring, the study of severe
storms and other uses.
The first set of rules stop short of
allowing some long-sought applications, including delivery of goods by
retailers like Amazon in populated areas.
The Obama administration had been
criticized for its perceived slowness in establishing drone regulations, while
the technology evolved at a rapid clip.
As the world's largest online retailer,
Amazon raised eyebrows in late 2013 with its plan to airlift small parcels to
customers by drone in select markets, less than 30 minutes after an order is
received.
It has gone to other countries to test
its evolving technology, and last month announced plans for test deliveries in
Britain.
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