Google's Solar-Drone Internet Tests About To Take Off

itwbennett writes Titan Aerospace, the drone-maker acquired last year by Google to help realize the company's ambitious plans to provide Internet access to remote areas via solar-powered drones, recently applied for and received two licenses from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to run tests over the next six months. The licenses, which are valid from March 8 until September 5, don’t give away much because Google has asked the FCC to keep many of the details confidential for commercial reasons, but they reveal the tests will take place inside a 1,345 square kilometer (520 square mile) area to the east of Albuquerque. The area includes the town of Moriarty, where Titan Aerospace is headquartered and conducts its research and development work.

Comments

That is until the FAA shuts them down

[burtosis]

This seems to me like the best option for delivering high speed internet in remote areas, but I can't help but think the FAA will shut them down at every opportunity. They can probably only do the tests there because of pre-existing FAA agreements. When will the FAA get off its ass and move into the 21st century? The recent legislation is a good start - going after some guy who made less than a dollar off youtube is sheer stupidity.

Re:That is until the FAA shuts them down

[JoeMerchant]

I don't see the FAA shutting Google down on this one. Google will get the appropriate licenses, jump through the appropriate hoops, and generally just do a bunch of stuff that most people or companies aren't capable of doing so that the FAA will say "OK Google, go ahead."

This is assuming that Google's plans are for something like a very small number of solar powered drones that are operating at an altitude that doesn't conflict with established traffic patterns, can be marked on navigational maps, include some kind of beacon to warn other aircraft of their operation, etc. Like radio towers, except I imagine a solar powered drone would try to fly above the clouds.

It's a win-win, Google gets to research and maybe 5 years in the future deploy some operations in remote areas. FAA gets to point at Google as an example of how they are letting people "do drones" in non-military US airspace, and still keeps a stranglehold on "unregulated" drone operations.

Because, really, it is starting to look like the FAA has heavily invested their personal assets in overseas drone manufacturers and they want to keep US businesses, especially the small startups, out of competition with them.

Re:That is until the FAA shuts them down

[burtosis]

You are spouting too much straight forward common sense for me to have much hope. The FAA seems to shut down everyone for little to no reason and takes many years or decades to pass anything. Drones became popular around 2000 and the FAA rules on them in 2014.

Re:That is until the FAA shuts them down

[kheldan]

At what altitude will these operate? What is their operational ceiling? What safeguards against hacking/hijacking of their navigational systems will be in place? How resistant will they be to atmospheric conditions knocking them out of position? Will they have onboard redundant systems to protect against system faults causing them to move out of their designated position? I assume they're going to use GPS; how resistant to GPS hacking, being one avenue by which these drones may be hijacked, will they be? Will they be completely autonomous, in either station-keeping mode or in general navigation mode, or will there be remote human operators on duty 24/7 monitoring their operation?

These are just some questions off the top of my head that I'd imagine the FAA would be asking about such a device. Being smarter guys than I am I'll assume they'd have even more questions. I have no idea how large these drones would be, but if something so small as a duck could completely destroy a jet engine, then I'm certain that one of these drones could do just as well to take an aircraft down; any such device as these could, in the wrong hands, be used as a weapon of terror; that is what the FAA is considering. Of course this is just considering the possibilities of navigational hazard, I'm not even addressing the possibility of hijacking the wireless payload on these drones for hacking purposes. There are a million-and-one things that could go wrong (or be made to go wrong), and it's the job of the FAA (and planners and engineers at Google) to consider all the possibilities, even the small and unlikely ones, perform a threat evaluation on them, and plan/design/program accordingly. If you're just making a toy to play with then of course it's very simple but they're not therefore the job becomes large and complex and there is much responsibility on the shoulders of everyone involved with it.

Re:That is until the FAA shuts them down

[burtosis]

I have no objections to any of those concerns. What i object to is the FAA not getting off their ass and actually working them out. The FAA has a long history of ignoring new tech, and stubbornly ignoring any discourse, rather than working through the issues and making the world a better place.

Re:That is until the FAA shuts them down

[kheldan]

How do any of us know what is happening at the FAA behind closed doors? Do people expect them to have a Twitter account and tweet every little thing they're doing?

Outrageous!

[fustakrakich]

Why would we ever allow a commercial license to be confidential, withheld from public scrutiny?? Absolutely shameful...

Re:Outrageous!

[Anonymous Coward]

The public is ok with lobbying, why not this, since it's merely and extension and effect ...

Ads in the sky!

[GrahamJ]

I can't help but think of those planes that fly banner ads over cities.

I guess if people don't mind using an operating system from the world's largest ad network they're probably ok with getting internet from them, too.

Re:Ads in the sky!

[Anonymous Coward]

Wait till they put cameras on those things. With digital getting better and better all the time, a few of those will give them CCTV coverage of entire towns. The law enforcement agencies are going to love them.

Re:Ads in the sky!

[Anonymous Coward]

This.

Google manipulating search results

[Anonymous Coward]

Google "nest +sucks" and then go try the same search on bing.

Don't be fooled Google is evil and unafraid to maximally leverage their market position to benefit themselves. The more mega companies gain ownership of the entire stack the more eventually you can expect them to leverage to maximal advantage.

Re: Google manipulating search results

[Anonymous Coward]

So, I tried this and I actually thing the google results are more negative. Most of the things on Bing are related to something called dragon nest, which seems to relate to a video game, while the top results on Google include negative amazon reviews and similar.

Solar drone internet

[rossdee]

That's OK for people who only use the internet in the daytime...

Re:Solar drone internet

[DanielRavenNest]

Hey, uninformed person, these drones have lithium batteries, and sunlight is more powerful at high altitude due to less atmospheric absorption. So it can fly for years or until something breaks.

Licenses

[Anonymous Coward]

It looks like these are the licenses:

https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/els/reports/ELSSearchResult.cfm?id_file_num=0094-EX-PL-2015
https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/els/reports/ELSSearchResult.cfm?id_file_num=0119-EX-ST-2015