Now, Even Russia Has Drone-Delivered Pizza. Get With It, USA!

The Cold War is heating back up and
the Russians have an edge on The Land of the Free in one critical
arena: drone-delivered pizza.

The Russian Federation – whether its
restricting speech online, making work visas
more difficult to obtain, or
muscling ethnic minorities in the recently snatched
Crimean peninsula – is not exactly known for its commitment to
limited government. And yet, The Moscow Times
reported yesterday on an activity that the Ivan Dragos of the
world get to enjoy while the Rocky Balboas do not:

A pizzeria in the Komi republic’s capital city
of Syktyvkar has launched a helicopter drone-delivery
service.

DoDo Pizza’s first unmanned delivery was made on Saturday
to much applause from witnesses in the city’s main
square. …

The drone was able to complete its task in just
half an hour, and the pizzeria’s owners plan to make
drone deliveries a regular practice.

This is the Sputnik of 2014, people.

Why is it that Russians (and
others worldwide) can get a quintessentially American dish
delivered by an unmanned aerial vehicle, but Americans cannot?
Regulations courtesy of the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA).

The FAA is tasked with rolling out a set of regulations for
commercial drone use in the U.S. by 2015, but in the meantime,
they’ve left businesses in a sort of
legal limbo. The agency has this year grounded operations of a
beer
delivery service, a
flower delivery service, and even a volunteer
search-and-rescue organization, because they don’t conform to
FAA rules (which
aren’t necessary legally binding). The agency made some
progress earlier this month by allowing BP to become the first
fully approved commercial drone operator, but that doesn’t exactly
deserve applause. Apparently, it took
over a year to work that deal out, and it shows the FAA is
more interested in picking winners and losers than simply allowing
any business to adopt drone technology and become more cost
effective for consumers. 

Of couse, you just might get pepper-sprayed by a drone in
America. Read Scott Shackford’s coverage of that
here.