By: Ben Gielow



On Wednesday, 15 Jan., at 1430 EDT, the U.S. Senate Committee on
Commerce, Science, and Transportation will hold a hearing entitled, “The
Future of Unmanned Aviation in the U.S. Economy: Safety and Privacy
Considerations”, which you can watch live by clicking here.
The hearing will “examine the growth of unmanned aerial systems (UAS),
commonly referred to as “drones”, in the United States, including the
potential economic benefits of drone operations, and the progress of
steps taken to facilitate the development of the industry through the
FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 (P.L. 112-95). The hearing will
include consideration of safety and privacy issues surrounding the
operation of drones in the United States.”



AUVSI’s Advocacy Team has been working with both the majority and
minority committee staff on this hearing for the past two months,
educating them on the progress the FAA has been making to integrate UAS
into the national airspace, providing talking points, advocating our
position on UAS privacy, which is that any new laws or regulations
should be technology neutral and not treat a UAS differently than other
data collection technologies, suggest possible witnesses, and draft
proposed questions for the witnesses.  



AUVSI was successful in getting AUVSI diamond-level member, Yamaha Motor
Corporation, USA, a seat at the witness table to testify on behalf of
commercial UAS manufacturers. Henio Arcangeli, Yamaha’s vice president
of corporate planning and new business development will be testifying
about Yamaha’s RMAX helicopter’s agriculture work in Japan. Other
witnesses include FAA Administrator Michael Huerta, Dr. Missy Cummings,
director of humans and automony laboratory at Duke University, and Chris
Calabrese, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU). 



AUVSI's president & CEO, Michael Toscano, joined Yamaha's Henio
Arcangeli, in writing an op-ed letter on the beneficial uses of UAS in
The Hill newspaper prior to the Congressional hearing. You can read the article here.