Dive Brief:

• The Federation Aviation Administration Wednesday announced its new Pathfinder Program, which will work with two companies on extended line-of-sight and beyond line-of-sight drone flight.

• The companies, a drone manufacturer and a railroad, will work with the FAA to explore how drones can enable farmers to work their land efficiently and railroads to inspect tracks in isolated areas.

• Amazon has pushed the FAA hard for less limited drone flight, but the agency has insisted on a go-slow approach.

Dive Insight:

Allowing drone flight outside of a pilot’s line of sight is the whole point of the technology for some people, and something for which Amazon has vehemently advocated. Although the e-retail giant has expressed frustration over what it characterizes as the agency’s intractability, the FAA has said it would take a slow, steady approach to its approvals of drone flight. The issue is rife with controversy, with many policymakers, privacy advocates, and others concerned about the proliferation of drones.

The FAA for now appears to be prioritizing the exploration of pilot-out-of-sight drone use for specific uses, like farming and railroad inspections, and areas like emergency searches and disaster relief would likely be next. Most likely, package delivery is not a priority, although if the FAA were to approve pilot-out-of-sight flight for any purpose, the door would seem to be open.

“We can’t operate in a vacuum,” Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a news release. “This is a big job, and we’ll get to our goal of safe, widespread [unmanned aircraft systems] integration more quickly by leveraging the resources and expertise of the industry.”