passenger UAV on the horizon ?

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A few weeks ago a significant step took place in Italy in developing a system for preventing aerial collisions between UAVs. The step included bringing two airplanes close enough, to about 150m apart, in order to test the best way to combine sensors to achieve optimal performances. The program is carried out with the funding of the European Defence Agency and the countries taking part are France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Spain.

The experimental flight in Italy is another stage of in the chain of development of the new system, in which the final objective, as seen by the developers, is the integration of UAVs in the civil flight system. It appears that the day isn’t far when men will put all their hopes and trust into this technology. But isn’t this putting all our eggs in one basket? And what if the developers’ vision will come true and the day when we fly to a far-away country with no direct human supervision, through completely autonomous systems is near? After all, technology, as sophisticated and advanced as it might be, is in constant danger of experiencing malfunctions, even if not often. The developers, then, must take this into account when trying to create a fully autonomous system that will be in charge of the safety of the people using it.