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Yesterday was a really big deal for drone delivery junkies. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy unveiled a rule the drone industry has been waiting on for over a decade.
It’s called “BVLOS,” or beyond visual line of sight. Right now, you’re not allowed to fly a drone without a human watching the drone for the duration of its flight (there are case-by-case exemptions and waivers you can get, but these can be expensive and take a long time to obtain). In other words, it’s pretty tricky for companies like Amazon or UPS to regularly make deliveries in any kind of cost-effective way.
The new rule is set to change all that—and start paving the way for companies like a16z-backed Zipline, Alphabet’s Wing, and of course Amazon’s Prime Air to finally start scaling their operations. And it means that all of us may be one step closer to getting our goodies and groceries shipped to us from the sky.
I called up James Grimsley, executive director of advanced technology initiatives for the Choctaw Nation, to talk about the milestone yesterday. Grimsley, who oversees the Choctaw tribe’s drone efforts and the piece of land where companies come to test and fly, was one of the people involved in drafting the report the FAA ultimately used to write the rule, and has been following this closely over the last 20 years of his career.
“This is a transformational rule,” he tells me. “This is a pretty big step.”’
Without boring you with too many of the policy particulars, it’s worth noting that this rule proposal is a market shift in how the FAA has approached regulation for the last 100 years. This rule, Grimsley says, is designed to be adaptable, and be able to shift with the pace of technology—a recognition that when regulation and approvals take too long, the technology at issue risks becoming obsolete by the time it can be implemented. Instead of handing down a prescriptive checklist for companies to follow, the FAA will grant approvals based on “industry consensus standards,” the FAA’s fact sheet says.
“Now we’re going to have a little bit clearer path for the investment community—at least that’s my perspective on it,” Grimsley says.
Though not everyone is going to be thrilled by the FAA paving the way for more drones to start zipping through our skies. The presence of drones has caused alarm in communities—and the buzzing noise has sometimes become a nuisance.
We’re already starting to see how these new BVLOS rules will play out. In Dallas, Alphabet subsidiary Wing and the startup Flytrex have been working closely with the FAA for a collaboration—running an automated delivery system in the same areas and showcasing how multiple companies can share data to operate in the same airspace at once without the need for humans to get involved.
The new rule is expected to go into effect sometime in early 2026, but companies are already gearing up for it.
“This creates the foundation for truly scalable drone operations in the U.S.,” says Alex Norman, head of global flight operations & services at the drone company Matternet.
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Jessica Mathews
X: @jessicakmathews
Email: jessica.mathews@fortune.com
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This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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