The U.S. Department of Transportation announced this week that the city had been selected to participate in its experimental commercial drone program, called the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration Pilot Program.
The city, in partnership with the city of Chula Vista and San Diego’s Regional Economic Development Corp., applied this year for the program to push the limits of commercial drone testing in real-world environments. The program is also meant help the Federal Aviation Administration develop ground rules around commercial drone use across the country.
San Diego was one of 10 winning agencies, selected from a field of 149 city and state applicants. Other winners include the states of Kansas, Virginia and North Dakota, and the cities of Reno, Nev., and Memphis, Tenn.
Though the specifics of the program remain unclear, the designation means that San Diego can obtain expedited approvals and waivers for its more than 20 regional partners to kick-start commercial drone testing. The city’s winning proposal included real-world applications, as put forth by its government, research and business partners — including the University of California at San Diego, Qualcomm and Uber — already developing drone-related systems for commercial purposes.
“San Diego is a hotbed of autonomous vehicle activity already,” said the city's economic development director, Erik Caldwell. “What we really heard from our partner companies is that they’re ready to go, fast. … The activity they’re doing indoors and in confined spaces is ready to move outdoors.”
That means San Diegans will be some of the first in the nation to experience drone-powered conveniences such as food delivery from Uber in minutes.
Other trial programs will incorporate drones to improve border surveillance, as well as speed up hospital blood tests, with the latter application relying on drones instead of couriers to deliver samples to and from labs.
Behind the scenes will be Qualcomm, AT&T, Intel and others that have promised to join forces to address the technical and logistical hurdles associated with operating a fleet of unmanned vehicles in cities.
“A key focus of the testing will be connectivity, using 4G LTE and upcoming 5G networks to accelerate the development of technology and support policy development,” Qualcomm said in a statement.
©2018 The San Diego Union-Tribune. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
