政府草案讓亞馬遜無人機有翅難飛

Amazon’s proposed delivery service hit some significant turbulence Sunday with proposed new rules for drone operation from the Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Transportation.

近日，亞馬遜的快遞服務計劃遇到了重大障礙，原因是美國聯邦航空管理局（FAA）和美國交通部就無人機運營提出了新的規定。

If passed as initially outlined, the guidelines could prevent the company from launching the service in the U.S.

如果兩部門的草案被完整通過，亞馬遜在美國推出無人機快遞業務的計劃可能受阻。

Under the draft of the regulations, drone operators must remain within a visual line of site from their drones and are not allowed to fly drones over people who aren’t in control of the aircraft. The rules are bad news for Prime Air, which Amazon had previously showcased using autonomous drones that were not manually operated by staffers.

這項草案規定，無人機操作者必須讓無人機一直保持在自己的視線之內，而且不能讓機器飛越對其沒有控制力的人。對亞馬遜的Prime Air快遞系統來說，這些規定是個壞消息。在之前的演示中，Prime Air無人機爲全自動飛行，無需人工操作。

Amazon, though, said it is still committed to delivering packages to customers via drones, and called on the government agency to rethink its proposal and how it might impact corporations.

不過，亞馬遜表示仍打算用無人機給客戶送貨，並要求政府部門重新考慮上述草案，以及它可能對企業產生什麼樣的影響。

“The FAA needs to begin and expeditiously complete the formal process to address the needs of our business, and ultimately our customers,” said Paul Misener, Amazon’s vice president for global policy, in a statement. “We are committed to realizing our vision for Prime Air and are prepared to deploy where we have the regulatory support we need.”

亞馬遜全球公共政策副總裁保羅o米塞納在一份聲明中表示：“FAA需要啓動並迅速完成相應的官方程序，以解決我們的業務需求，進而滿足我們客戶的需要。我們仍致力於實現Prime Air這一願景，並準備在獲得監管支持的地區部署該系統。”

The rules also limit the weight of an unmanned aircraft to under 55 lbs. Amazon had previously said the initial weight capacity of its drones would belimited to 5 lbs.

上述規定還將無人機的重量限制在55磅（24.97公斤）以下。亞馬遜此前曾表示，該公司無人機的最大運載能力初步將定爲5磅（2.27公斤）。

The FAA released the proposal for rules regarding drones on Sunday. The agency stressed that the proposals are not final, and that it is seeking input from all interested parties.

FAA於近期公佈了上述無人機監管草案。該部門強調，這並非最終規定，而且它正在向相關各方徵詢意見。

“We have tried to be flexible in writing these rules,”said FAA Administrator Michael Huerta in a statement. “We want to maintain today’s outstanding level of aviation safety without placing an undue regulatory burden on an emerging industry.”

FAA局長邁克爾o許爾塔發表聲明稱：“我們一直在設法制定靈活的規定。我們希望像現在一樣保持出色的航空安全水平，同時避免給一個新興行業帶來不必要的監管負擔。”

The FAA is accepting public comments on the proposed regulation for the next 60 days. Among the areas it specifically mentioned as being up for discussion: whether the rules should permit operations beyond line of sight, and if so, how far operators would be able to fly drones.

FAA將在60天內聽取公衆對上述規定的意見。它特別提到了一些可供探討的內容，其中包括是否應該允許無人機脫離操作者的視線，以及如果允許的話，操作者可操作無人機飛多遠。

Amazon had previously hoped to launch Prime Air in 2015, although that date was always dependent on regulatory approval, and even Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos called it “optimistic.” Now the language on the service’s page is much more ambiguous, saying “Putting Prime Air into service will take some time, but we will deploy when we have the regulatory support needed to realize our vision.”

亞馬遜此前希望在2015年推出Prime Air系統，只是具體時間必然要取決於監管審批；該公司首席執行官傑夫o貝佐斯甚至說這是“樂觀”預期。現在，亞馬遜網站對這項業務的介紹要比以前有魄力得多，它說“讓Prime Air系統投入運作需要一些時間，但只要獲得所需的監管支持，我們就會將其付諸實施，從而讓我們的願景成爲現實。”

Amazon initially unveiled Prime Air and its drone delivery ambitions in 2013 as part of a broader effort to further speed up deliveries. In announcing the program, Bezos said the drones could deliver packages within a 10 mile radius of the company’s fulfillment centers within 30 minutes.

亞馬遜最初於2013年披露了Prime Air系統以及用無人機送快遞的遠大目標，這是該公司採取廣泛措施來進一步提高快遞速度的舉措之一。貝佐斯在介紹這個項目時說，無人機可以在30分鐘內將包裹從亞馬遜的運營中心送到10英里（約16公里）遠的地方。

Amazon is not the only company looking to drones as possible delivery systems. Google GOOG 1.12% , Domino’s Pizza and Alibaba BABA 2.24% have also been conducting trials.

把無人機視爲潛在快遞工具的公司並非亞馬遜一家。谷歌、達美樂比薩和阿里巴巴也都一直在就此進行測試。