Hello, Quartz Index readers!
This weekend marks the first occasion where drone racing as a sport will be broadcast on American TV. The Drone Nationals will be on ESPN and the DR1 Invitational will be on the Discovery Channel. Both have secured major sponsorship deals, with the likes of GoPro, AIG, and PepsiCo. This is just one facet of the commercial drone boom currently underway in the US.
Earlier this week (Aug. 2), the White House announced a $35 million incentive plan to accelerate the creation of a commercial drone industry in the US. According to the government, the fledgling industry could potentially generate $82 million for the US economy in the next decade, as well as create up to 100,000 new jobs.
The announcement comes just a few months after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that it finalized regulations for legally operating commercial drones in the US. The new regulations, which go into effect Aug. 29, will allow more companies the right to legally fly drones. Until now, only about 5,000 companies had the right to fly drones commercially.
With these new regulations, large companies with designs on delivering goods with drones, such as Amazon, Google and UPS, can start to formulate their plans for creating this framework. The FAA is also working with NASA to build a air-traffic control system for drones, which will likely pave the way for future Amazon orders hitting your doorstep via drone. —Mike Murphy
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