Americans Might Get Flowers And Beer By Drone After All

Great news for people who were looking forward to a future of receiving small deliveries on their doorsteps by unmanned drone. A federal judge’s decision last week means that a Michigan-based florist can go ahead and continue their tests of flower delivery by unmanned aerial vehicle.

It’s big companies like Amazon that get most of the attention when it comes to commercial applications of drones, but the florist is ready to get started with its tests as soon as possible. They had planned some rose deliveries as a Valentine’s Day publicity stunt before the FAA put a stop to the festivities.

Now the company can resume its tests. That’s great news for people who enjoy receiving flowers but hate interacting with strangers, we suppose. Perhaps now the planned drone deliveries of beer to ice fishermen can continue as well.

As we explained last week, the judge’s decision was really about a photographer fined for using a drone to take pictures. While the world is still waiting for official regulations of unmanned aircraft use for commercial purposes, the decision states that small drones that fly below 400 feet are really just glorified model aircraft, and there should be no difference between a flower-dropping or photo-snapping drone and a toy helicopter.

Federal Judge Clears Detroit Florist’s Delivery By Drone [WWJ]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist