During a press conference, Duffy blamed U.S. bureaucracy for China’s dominance in the commercial drone market and said it “is about to change.”
U.S. Transportation Secretary and interim administrator of NASA Sean Duffy announced on Tuesday that the U.S. would be easing some of the restrictions on use to counter China.
During a press conference on ‘Unleashing American Drone Dominance,’ Duffy noted that China controls 90% of the commercial drone market. He blamed U.S. bureaucracy for that and said it “is about to change,” as per TheFly.
Duffy announced the proposed rule – ‘Beyond Visual Line of Sight Operations’ – stating, “The approval of drone use will be done in a very different way, allowing innovators to change the way industry uses drones.
Shares of drone companies such as Red Cat Holdings (RCAT), Ageagle Aerial Systems (UAVS), Unusual Machines (UMAC), and Draganfly (DPRO) jumped after the news. Unusual Machines’ stock led the pack, rising more than 11% in midday trade. Red Cat’s stock jumped more than 8%, while Ageagle’s stock gained as much as 5%.
On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around Unusual Machines and Red Cat moved higher but remained in ‘bearish’ territory.
Duffy explained that previously, operators would have had to get individual waivers or exemptions to use their drones without a visual line of sight. These were approved on a case-by-case basis, and the process was cumbersome. The new proposed rule would eliminate these requirements for BVLOS operations and expand the use cases for drone technologies, Duffy said.
He pointed to DoorDash (DASH) and Amazon (AMZN) deliveries as use cases already being implemented in certain areas, while addressing questions about how this new rule would impact the common man. According to him, drone use can reduce road congestion and lower fuel consumption. “A lot of really good things can happen with this technology, using the airspace in a different way,” Duffy told reporters.
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