Just one and a half years ago, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos publicly outlined his vision for a future where drones delivered goods to your door in 30 minutes or less.
It wasn’t just hypothetical, either.
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Amazon Prime Air was already far along the development stage, and its official launch hinged mostly on approval from the Federal Aviation Administration.
The FAA was understandably not on board.
New regulations on the commercial use of unmanned aircraft were passed just a few months ago, which effectively ruled out the possibility of drone delivery.
On Wednesday, however, an FAA administrator told a congressional hearing that the agency plans to have its regulations for commercial drones in place within a year. That’s a very swift turnaround for regulating air space that could soon be swarmed by thousands of airborne consumer products, at around a 400-foot altitude.
Amazon is ready to pull the trigger on its drone delivery program as soon as those rules are established.