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TECHNOLOGY A23
Tuesday 20 October 2015
Drone close calls spur U.S.
govt. to require registration
JOAN LOWY and the Transportation De- will easily pass a million by In this June 11, 2015 file photo, a hexacopter drone is flown dur-
Associated Press partment are setting up the end of the year. ing a drone demonstration at a farm in Cordova, Md.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The a 25- to 30-member task Transportation Secretary
U.S. government will require force including govern- Anthony Foxx directed Associated Press
many drone aircraft to be ment and industry officials the task force to deliver
registered, a move prompt- and hobbyists. They’ll rec- its report by Nov. 20. The about 100 reports a month flying — at crowded sports
ed by the growing number ommend which drones Consumer Electronics As- from pilots who say they’ve stadiums, for example — it
of reported close calls and should be required to reg- sociation has forecast that seen drones flying near has been difficult to find
incidents that pose safety ister and which should be 700,000 drones will be sold planes and airports, com- the operators.
risks, officials announced exempted, and design a this holiday season, and pared with only a few sight- The FAA signed an agree-
Monday. Pilot sightings of system that would be easy Foxx said it’s especially im- ings per month last year. ment last month with CACI
drones have doubled since for commercial operators portant that new drone us- So far there have been no International Inc., an infor-
last year, including sight- to comply with, the depart- ers be taught the respon- accidents, but agency of- mation technologycom-
ings near manned aircraft ment said. sibilities that come with fly- ficials have said they are pany in Arlington, Virginia,
and major sporting events, Toys and small drones that ing. concerned that even a to test technology that
and interference with wild- don’t present a safety Registering drones that drone weighing only a few could locate the operators
fire-fighting operations, the threat are likely to be ex- could pose safety risks pounds (kilograms) might of small drones that are fly-
government said. empt. “makes sense, but it should cause serious damage if ing illegally near airports.
“These reports signal a trou- Drones that weigh only a not become a prohibitive it is sucked into an engine The technology would let
bling trend,” Federal Avia- pound or two or that can’t burden for recreational us- or smashes into an airliner’s the government track ra-
tion Administration chief fly higher than a few hun- ers who fly for fun and edu- windshield. dio signals used to operate
Michel Huerta said at a dred feet are considered cational purposes and who In cases where drones drones within a 5-mile (8 ki-
news conference to an- less risky. Heavier ones and have operated harmoni- have crashed where they lomter) radius and identify
nounce the step. Registra- those that can fly thou- ously within our communi- were not supposed to be the operator’s location.q
tion will increase pressure sands of feet pose more of ties for decades,” Dave
on drone operators to fly a problem. Mathewson, executive di-
responsibly, he said, add- There is no official count rector of the Academy for
ing, “when they don’t fly of how many drones have Model Aeronautics, said in
safely, they’ll know there been sold in the U.S., but in- a statement.
will be consequences.” dustry officials say it is in the The FAA now receives
To work out details, the FAA hundreds of thousands and
Google to give away software to Microsoft Office defectors
MICHAEL LIEDTKE Google is limiting the free In this June 5, 2014 photo, a man walks past a Google sign at grams nearly a decade
AP Technology Writer usage to 3,000 people the company’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. ago.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — per defecting customer. At that time, Google was
Google is escalating an Even with that restriction, Associated Press trying a different approach
attack on Microsoft’s lucra- Google will be foregoing by requiring an Internet
tive Office software in an $180,000 to $360,000 in an- Lundy said. He estimated to consumers, too. connection to use its soft-
attempt to hit its longtime nual revenue if a company Microsoft’s current custom- Digital advertising still ac- ware instead of installing
rival where it will hurt the with 3,000 people signs up ers are paying $12 to $20 counts for nearly all of the programs on the hard
most. for the offer. per user under contracts Google’s revenue, which drives of individual pro-
The assault is targeting As an additional incen- that typically run for several totaled $66 billion last year. grams. Now, Microsoft and
companies and govern- tive, Google will pay up to years. But the Mountain View, most other software mak-
ment agencies paying for $75,000 to each company Microsoft’s Office division California, company has di- ers sell subscriptions that
Microsoft’s suite of word switching to its software to generated $23.5 billion, or verting some of the money allow online access to their
processing, email, calen- cover the costs of making roughly one-quarter of the it makes from advertising programs so they can be
dar, spreadsheet and other the change. software maker’s revenue to chip away at Microsoft’s opened on personal com-
Office programs. Google, now owned by a during its last fiscal year dominance in office soft- puters, tablets and smart-
If they dump Microsoft, newly formed company ending in June. The reve- ware since it introduced phones.
Google will give them free called Alphabet Inc., de- nue includes sales of Office a suite of competing pro- Microsoft, which is based
use of a package of its clined to say how much it in Redmond, Washing-
competing software that has budgeted for its latest ton, also has been trying
normally costs $5 or $10 per assault on Microsoft Corp. to chip away at Google’s
user each month. Google says more than 600 dominance in Internet
The price for the “Google companies have at least search and advertising for
for Work” software will be 10,000 employees using the past decade, with little
waived for the duration of Work software. success.
the defecting customers’ The offer underscores Google’s new business
existing contracts with Mi- Google’s confidence in the software offer “represents
crosoft or any other suppli- quality of its software and a continuing saga in the
er. The offer is open for the its resolve to undercut one battle with Microsoft for
next six months in the U.S. of Microsoft’s most valu- control of the desktop and
and will eventually be ex- able franchises, said Ara- mobile devices,” Lundy
tended to other countries. gon Research analyst Jim said.q
