Out of Sight
The next big issues for drones could be moving operations beyond
visual line-of-sight (VLOS)—that is, drones that can travel beyond
where the operator can see—said Mauro of Verisk Analytics.
“We’re going to likely be looking at a drastic shift in drones,” he
said, especially as technology moves beyond current FAA regulations regarding VLOS, which are currently the rule for drones
(with some exceptions).
“The pilot may be one of your key underwriting variables
today,” he said, likening the operation to that of a professional
truck driver, who knows how to stop a truck that’s carrying a
load of several tons safely when approaching a red
light. While an experienced drone pilot might
see that it’s windy, a novice might not, “so
the human interaction may rank high on
one’s underwriting concern,” he said.
“The transition from [VLOS] to
beyond line-of-sight is going to shift our
attitude toward drones, and it may lead
to underwriting differences as we focus
more on the technology controlling the drone’s flight, as opposed
to the pilot’s experience,” Mauro said. “It hasn’t yet, most likely due
to current FAA regulations, but it’s something we’re expecting.”
Proudlove of Global Aerospace agreed that the VLOS issue
will be a big one going forward. “Whether in package delivery,
pipeline monitoring, or forward commercial operations that are
really integrated into the national air system—that’s really the next
big item,” he said. “It’s probably a couple of years off, and it’s no
small task for the FAA and others to determine how that’s going
to be done safely. But that will be another game-changer, and from
there [the question will be] how many other areas from existing
aviation infrastructure will robotics affect? I think the aviation
sector in general presents a lot of opportunity for automation, and
we’ll see more creep into automation in the aerospace industry.”
Drones have performed many valuable services this year,
with multiple hurricane and fire disasters (see sidebar). Going
forward, their use can only be expected to go one
way—up—as will the need to ensure, and
insure, that their usage remains as safe
as possible as this nascent technology
continues to take off.
MICHAEL G. MALLOY is managing
editor for member content at the
Academy.
“You don’t have any private airspace
anymore. You can tell your neighbor
to get o; your lawn, or get their tree
limbs o; your lawn, but you cannot
force your neighbor’s drone away
from your picture window in front
of your house.”
“I would much rather take the risk
of putting a drone over a building than
put somebody up on a ladder or another
dangerous situation from a claims or
loss-control perspective,” Tobias said.
“There have been no significant injuries
that I know of from a drone flying com-
mercially. But people are falling off roofs
and ladders every day when adjusting
claims. … Drones actually can make hu-
mans safer when implemented the right
way into these existing processes.”
The FAA’s Part 107 regulations
that were passed in August 2016—in
which commercial drone operators are
required to take a test and get a pilot’s
operating license—were a “big catalyst
to get a lot of the bigger insurance
carriers off the sideline” to use drones,
Tobias said. The other advancement
was in drone technology itself, with
drones getting smaller, faster, safer, and
more capable, he added.
Betterview has conducted about
7,000 roof inspections via drone and
has seen a big uptick in its business in
the past year, according to Tobias. “In
the past few days, hurricanes Irma and
Harvey have impacted businesses quite
a bit,” he said in early September. “The
combination of drones’ increasing capa-
bilities and, most importantly, improve-
ments in the quality of their output, has
proven to be the most meaningful to
our insurance-carrier customers.”
There has also been a big investment
and advancement in artificial intelli-
gence, which helps with computer-
vision technology and leads to more
opportunities to fly for carriers and “put
drones in the hands of claims adjusters
that are already out there,” he said.
“2016 was really a year of proof
of concepts for a lot of insurers, and
2017 has been trying to figure out how
they’re going to operationalize their
drone programs,” Tobias said. “We’re
still in the early days, but we’ve gone
from kicking the tires and testing to
how do we operate drones at scale as
an insurance carrier.” S H U
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