The Hong Kong's Civil Aviation Authority (HKCAA) suggests that UAV users may need to register their drones with authorities, undertake training, pass tests and meet certain insurance requirements. As per the new rules, drone weighing over 9 ounces would need to be registered and the operators need to undertake short web-based training. But before making any changes, Hong Kong needs to go through a three month period of public consultation. The proposal will also include making certain parts of the island into no-fly zones. Still, there are number of countries that require proper registration and a license to fly.

The drones will take photos and video after serious crashes to help traffic detectives' investigations. Police say the aerial technology will speed up the investigations process by several hours. They add that the technology will not be used for surveillance purposes.

A drone that took off from Syria and penetrated Israeli airspace in February was armed and on an Iranian mission to carry out an attack in Israeli territory, the Israeli military said Friday. The drone was shattered by helicopter gunships, preventing the attack, according to the military, which did not disclose the supposed target. The February episode set off a day of intense battle, escalating the conflict between Israel and Iran, one of several overlapping conflicts in the Syrian war. Israel's announcement on Friday, hours before the American-led strikes against Syria, added another element of volatility into an already tense region. The strikes launched by the United States, Britain and France against three chemical weapons storage and research facilities did little to assuage Israel's concerns about the Iranian buildup across its northern frontier, according to experts, and the announcement could be intended to bolster Israel's case for taking its own military action against Iran's presence in Syria.

The latest drone-related patent has been awarded by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to the HorseFly Truck Launched Drone Package Delivery System from the Workhorse Group. Numbers of companies are coming forward and getting on board and the drone delivery patents that have been awarded is going up as well. "We feel that the patented HorseFly truck launched drone package delivery system is the first major change to the last mile delivery process since the invention of the package delivery truck. Drivers appreciate the fact that the HorseFly system is fast, reliable, and efficient and last mile package delivery is changing, and the HorseFly delivery system is leading the way," said Steve Burns, Workhorse CEO. Studies have shown that last-mile drone delivery can be both more-efficient and greener than deliveries via truck.

Cellular-connected unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will inevitably be integrated into future cellular networks as new aerial mobile users. Providing cellular connectivity to UAVs will enable a myriad of applications ranging from online video streaming to medical delivery. However, to enable a reliable wireless connectivity for the UAVs as well as a secure operation, various challenges need to be addressed such as interference management, mobility management and handover, cyber-physical attacks, and authentication. In this paper, the goal is to expose the wireless and security challenges that arise in the context of UAV-based delivery systems, UAV-based real-time multimedia streaming, and UAV-enabled intelligent transportation systems. To address such challenges, artificial neural network (ANN) based solution schemes are introduced. The introduced approaches enable the UAVs to adaptively exploit the wireless system resources while guaranteeing a secure operation, in real-time. Preliminary simulation results show the benefits of the introduced solutions for each of the aforementioned cellular-connected UAV application use case.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that a crashed drone attached with bags of marijuana and tobacco was found at the Lincoln Correctional Center two months ago. The Justice Department reported last year an increasing number of attempts to use drones to smuggle contraband into federal prisons over the past five years.

DEEP AERO has announced today that it will give passenger drones as a reward to three lucky winners from the pool of all contributors who contribute 1 ETH or more to its pre-sale campaign, subject to the pre-sale campaign getting fully subscribed*. "The use of unmanned aerial vehicles is increasing exponentially," says Mr. Gurmeet Singh, CEO of DEEP AERO. "We're heading towards a future in which millions of drones will fly billions of flights. At some point in the not-too-distant future, fleets of commercial drones are expected to swarm across the skies. Current airspace management and air traffic flow management systems don't have the capabilities to handle the type of operations relevant to drones. In addition, the anticipated traffic density of drones is far beyond the capabilities of current air traffic management systems."

An aerial agricultural service company called Airviz, started by Bryan Johnston and Alex Dodds, plans to fly drone over farm fields in Canada and aims to provide instant feedback on the crop condition. "Our business plan is we fly it (an agricultural field) frequently throughout the season and give you immediate results," said Johnston. The quick results are only possible because of the involvement of drone technology. "The new technology means that drone services companies can provide rapid information and growers can act on that information immediately," said Matthew Johnson, owner of M3 Aerial Productions in Manitoba. "My five-year plan is to make both hardware and software that will be able to do this completely autonomously, with no pilot needed whatsoever," said Alex Dodds.

Lately, the DJI Drone Photography Award, make creative use of a drone to explore new photographic possibilities. The drone work is awe-inspiring, letting us consider the world from an alternative perspective. The Sand Castles (Part II) by Markel Redondo focuses on highlighting the Spain's problem from a new perspective. "We live in a society with huge housing issues, where many cannot afford a place to live, yet Spain has more than three million empty homes," said Redondo. Hegen loves exploring the relationship between man and nature and uses aerial photography via drone to document landscapes that have been transformed by human intervention.

The US Army recently announced that it is developing the first drones that can spot and target vehicles and people using artificial intelligence (AI). This is a big step forward. Whereas current military drones are still controlled by people, this new technology will decide who to kill with almost no human involvement. Once complete, these drones will represent the ultimate militarisation of AI and trigger vast legal and ethical implications for wider society. There is a chance that warfare will move from fighting to extermination, losing any semblance of humanity in the process.