President Trump's administration will allow waivers to test delivery drones in cities. Your next toothbrush or toothpaste tube could be delivered by drone.

How Will Air Traffic Control Work When We Have Drones and Flying Cars Everywhere?

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate , New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has been convinced for a while that one day flying robots will deliver packages to your home or office.

From article, (Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has been convinced for a while that one day flying robots will deliver packages to your home or office. No more driving to the store to pick up toothpaste; no more receiving human couriers toting important documents; no more mail carrier, no more mover, no more pizza guy. When Bezos described his vision of drone-filled skies in a 2013 60 Minutesinterview, it may have been easy to scoff. “It drops the package. You come and get your package and we can do half-hour deliveries,” Bezos said, imagining that drone delivery could happen within five years. The biggest hurdle, he said, would be regulation

In October, the White House released an executive order inviting states and municipal governments to apply for broad waivers that would allow companies to conduct drone delivery trials and test air traffic control systems that go beyond what the current law allows. And according to Gregory McNeal, co-founder of AirMap, a company that provides drone traffic management solutions and has been working closely with the FAA on drone policy, hundreds of local governments have expressed interest in participating. Now the FAA and members of local and federal law enforcement agencies are reviewing those proposals. The Trump administration ordered that a minimum of at least five pilot sites for testing drone delivery be approved by the end of July. Which means that this year, drone delivery is likely to take off in certain areas across the country, including major cities, long before a national drone traffic management solution is finalized. All kinds of businesses have been eager to hop on the drone bandwagon. There was the dry cleaner in Philadelphia who hung his hanger on a drone in 2013, and in 2014, a flower delivery company outside of Detroit tried to ferry a bouquet through the skies, only to have the FAA ground the drone. There’s also (thank goodness) a company working on a drone burrito delivery service.

The new drone pilot programs could take any number of shapes. If there’s one thing the industry hasn’t been shy about, it’s imagining what a future with drone delivery might look like. Amazon, for example, has proposed an idea for beehive-like towers where drones can recharge and be restocked before going out for another delivery. The company also won a patent for its design of floating warehouse fulfillment centers (like, in the sky!), as well as an idea for smaller drones to assemble and link together to carry larger packages. There’s also Project Wing, the drone delivery program from Google’s parent company Alphabet, which has tested burrito delivery by drone and has a patent for a ground robot designed to catch packages from drones to bring them to people’s front doors. Amazon has also proposed an aerial highway system, where drones that are filming or surveying land fly lower than drones jetting across the sky at high speeds delivering packages.)

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