Latest Drones Headlines

All the headlines from our Drones Topic Page, ordered by recency.

How Drones Are Digitally Transforming Insurance Claims Inspections and Workflows

Oct 7 2019 // Somewhere in central Michigan, a pickup truck drives into a sleepy suburban neighborhood. An autonomous drone takes flight off the truck’s flatbed and, nearly silently, heads a half-mile east, slowing above a...

UPS Approved to Operate First U.S. Drone Airline for Non-Residential Deliveries

Oct 2 2019 // United Parcel Service Inc. on Tuesday said it won the U.S. government’s first full approval to operate a drone airline, which gave it a lead in the nascent U.S. drone delivery business over rivals Amazon.com Inc. and...

EagleView Wins $125M Patent Infringement Award, Sales Halt Against Verisk

Sep 30 2019 // A New Jersey jury last week ordered insurance data services firm Verisk to pay $125 million to aerial imaging firm EagleView for lost profits linked to Verisk infringing on various EagleView patents.The jury verdict in the...

Travelers Gives Agents Aerial Property Damage Viewer to Expedite Disaster Claims

Sep 24 2019 // Property/casualty insurer Travelers is now providing its insurance agents and brokers with before-and-after photos of areas affected by disasters.The Travelers Catastrophe Map Viewer provides access to searchable,...

Airlift from Drugstore to Doorstep: Walgreens, Google’s Wing Testing Drone Deliveries

Sep 23 2019 // Walgreens and a Google affiliate are testing drone deliveries that can put drugstore products on customer doorsteps minutes after being ordered.Snacks like Goldfish Crackers or gummy bears as well as aspirin for sick kids...

Experts Not Worried About Saudi-Like Drone Attack Knocking Out U.S. Oil Production

Sep 17 2019 // The style of attack used against oil plants in Saudi Arabia that knocked out half of the country’s production on Saturday is unlikely to be a risk in the United States, energy and security experts say.“The U.S....

New Hurricane Response Tools from Munich Re Aim to Improve Claims Experience

Aug 7 2019 // Munich Re has launched a new suite of hurricane response tools designed to help insurance companies assess widespread property damage after a hurricane and improve their customers’ claims experience.Developed by...

First Drone Flight ‘Beyond Line of Sight’ Completed, Says FAA

Aug 5 2019 // The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said on Friday it had approved the first drone flight beyond the operator’s sight line, a major advance for retailers like Amazon.com Inc. seeking to speed up deliveries by...

From Confined Spaces to Big Buildings, Drones Take On Riskiest Jobs

Jul 29 2019 // Here’s a job any worker would be happy to pass off to a drone: Imagine crawling down a ladder into the vast darkness of a 20-story-high storage tank filled with toxic chemical fumes to spend hours searching for...

FAA Hit for New Delay in Remote Drone Tracking Program

Jul 18 2019 // The Federal Aviation Administration has again delayed plans to propose new rules requiring the remote identification of drones, according to records and a member of Congress on Wednesday.Congress directed the FAA in 2016...

Alphabet Has High Hopes for Its Drone Traffic Control App OpenSky

Jul 16 2019 // The company that brought you free digital maps and email wants to do the same thing for your drone.Wing LLC, an offshoot of Alphabet Inc.’s Google, on Tuesday unveiled a new app it calls OpenSky that it hopes will...

SkyWatch.AI Launches On-Demand Drone Insurance in UK, Underwritten by Chaucer

Jul 15 2019 // SkyWatch.AI, the on-demand, telematics-based insurance platform, has launched in the United Kingdom following last year’s launch in the United States.SkyWatch.AI’s UK policies will be underwritten by specialty...

30% of Disaster Claims Settled After Desk Audit Using Munich Re Remote Tool, Images

Jul 1 2019 // Munich Re had teamed up with a unit of the National Insurance Crime Bureau to offer insurance carriers an analytics tool that can quickly assess property damage after natural catastrophes and speed up claims payments.Roman...

Look, in the Sky. It’s a Balloon. It’s an Aerial Surveillance System.

Jun 7 2019 // An Arizona company developing a new type of high-altitude, long-range surveillance platform just completed a 16-day mission during which massive balloons floated over four western U.S. states, all part of an effort to...

Amazon Reveals Unique Delivery Drone; FAA Grants Limited Testing Approval

Jun 6 2019 // Amazon.com Inc. has unveiled a revolutionary new drone — part helicopter and part science-fiction aircraft — that the company expects to use for test deliveries of toothpaste and other household goods starting...

Florida’s Citizens Joins NICB Disaster Response Services Consortium

Jun 4 2019 // Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, Florida’s insurer of last resort, has joined the Geospatial Intelligence Center (GIC), an insurance industry consortium spearheaded by the National Insurance Crime Bureau...

Opponents of Airport Expansion Plan to Use Drones to Close London’s Heathrow

May 31 2019 // Climate activists from Extinction Rebellion have drawn up plans to use drones to shut London’s Heathrow Airport this summer in a campaign to stop the construction of a third runway at Europe’s busiest airport,...

VOOM Raises $5M to Expand On-Demand Insurance for Episodic Mobility Usage

May 24 2019 // VOOM, the Tel Aviv-based on-demand, telematics-based insurance platform for drones and other specialized mobility services such as e-scooters, announced it has closed a $5 million Series A funding round.The round was led...

Video Game Effort Could Help Regulate Future Drone Traffic

May 20 2019 // By Lindsay WhitehurstDrones ferrying medical supplies, packages and even pizza could one day be crisscrossing the skies above U.S. cities, and a team at the University of Utah is working with regulators to keep that future...

Insurer Says Iran’s Guards Likely Facilitated Saudi Tanker Attacks: Reuters

May 17 2019 // Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) are “highly likely” to have facilitated attacks last Sunday on four tankers including two Saudi ships off Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, according to a...