Today, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has delivered a Final Rule on Remote Identification (ID) for unmanned aerial systems (UAS). Thought of as a digital license plate for drones, the objective of Remote ID is to ensure that a UAS in flight is providing identification and location information that authorities can access. The FAA also released the final rule for Operations Over People, which includes rules for operations at night.  

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine L. Chao recently announced that eight projects in seven states will receive nearly $60 million in federal grant funding to test the safe integration of automated driving systems (ADS) onto U.S. roadways.

Ten state, tribal or local governments have been tapped to help expand the flight envelope of unmanned aircraft in the National Airspace System, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced Wednesday.   The selections for the UAS Integration Pilot Program are Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma; the city of San Diego; Virginia Tech – the Center for Innovative Technology; the Kansas Department of Transportation; the Lee County Mosquito Control District of Ft. Myers, Florida; the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority of Tennessee; the North Carolina Department of Transportation; the North Dakota Department of Transportation; the city of Reno, Nevada; and the University of Alaska-Fairbanks.  

On Jan. 18, Ohio Governor John Kasich made DriveOhio official with an executive order. DriveOhio is essentially a “one-stop shop for researchers, developers and manufacturers to collaborate on autonomous and connected vehicle initiatives in Ohio.” The executive order brings together two entities; those that are responsible for building transportation infrastructure, and those that are developing advanced mobility technologies. It provides a “statewide, single point of entry” for companies and innovators to test and build smart mobility technologies together, and, it establishes an “infrastructure for developing and establishing statewide standards and strategic recommendations” in regard to the types and use of technology for deployment, as well as their financing.