NEW YORK – With its ubiquitous Phantom drones, Chinese manufacturer SZ DJI Technology Co. brought aerial photography to millions. Now, with dozens of competitors biting at its heels, the world's biggest producer of consumer drones needs to prove that its products are more than just glorified selfie sticks. "Right now, DJI is the king of the drones-are-cool market, they are not king of the drones-are-a-tool market," said Colin Snow, founder of Skylogic Research, which advises corporations using drones. "They've entered where they don't have a lot of experience." The nine-year-old company is developing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for agriculture and surveying as dozens of competitors inside China and around the world begin to flood the market with cheap drones, from 10 minitoys to sub- 100 camera carriers.

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) has been talking about the commercial use of drones for quite some time now. However, in a recent interview, CEO Jeff Bezos assured artificial intelligence (AI) is the next big thing. Nonetheless, Chinese firm Ehang might disagree with this idea; in fact, the company is betting on drone taxis as the next attention-grabbing innovation in a move that could remind readers of Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG)'s autonomous car initiative or Zee.Aero's flying car. Back in January, Ehang, a cameras and drones maker, presented its electric passenger drone, the Ehang 184. Now, the Chinese corporation has partnered with the Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems (NIAS) and the Governor's Office of Economic Development (Goed) to test the vehicle and, ultimately, get regulatory approval.

A series of emails between American diplomats in Pakistan and Washington over drone strikes are the focus of the criminal probe involving presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's handling of classified information, according to a report Thursday by The Wall Street Journal. The emails in 2011 and 2012 were sent through a "computer system for unclassified matters" that gave the State Department input into whether a Central Intelligence Agency drone strike went forward, congressional and law enforcement officials briefed on the FBI probe told the Journal. Some of those emails were then sent by then-Secretary of State Clinton's aides to her personal email account and private server, officials told the Journal. The vaguely worded messages, however, didn't mention the "CIA," "drones" or details about the targets, the Journal reported. The emails were written within the often-narrow time frame in which State Department officials had to decide whether or not to object to drone strikes before the CIA pulled the trigger, officials told the newspaper.

FILE - In this May 25, 2016, file photo, an Afghan man reads a local newspaper with photos the former leader of the Afghan Taliban, Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan. A senior U.S. defense official says the administration is moving toward a decision to expand the military's authority to conduct airstrikes against the Taliban in Afghanistan. The official says a final decision has not been made. But there is a broad desire to give the military greater ability to help the Afghan forces.

A vial of blood is small, fragile, and vital. In the days and weeks following an earthquake, or in the early stages of an epidemic, a sample of blood, properly tested, can save lives. That of the patient and, if a disease is noticed and handled before it spreads, that of many others. Drones, from ship to shore and then shore back to ship, may be the answer. Later this month, drone delivery service Flirtey, in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine pathologist Dr. Timothy Amukele, plans to test ship-to-shore drone delivery in Cape May, New Jersey, on June 23rd.

Sales of drones are soaring - and so are the concerns about how easily these devices can be hacked. Researchers have discovered that manufacturers are unknowingly leaving digital doors unlocked that give hackers an opportunity to wreak havoc on the system. The team found three different vulnerabilities in the devices that allowed them to send rogue commands from a laptop to disrupts its normal operation, land it or send it crashing to the ground. Researchers have discovered that manufacturers are unknowingly leaving digital doors unlocked that give hackers an opportunity to wreak havoc on the system. The students performed wireless network penetration testing on a popular hobby drone and developed'exploits' from the vulnerabilities found to disrupt the process of operators to control flights.

States across the US are scrambling to figure out how to regulate self-driving cars, wearable technologies that track our health, smart homes that constantly monitor their infrastructure and the rest of the devices emerging from the so-called "internet of things" (IoT). The result is a smattering of incomplete and inconsistent law that could depress the upside of the technology without really addressing its risks. What's most notable about these early regulatory attempts is not that they are varied – that is to be expected. It's that the regulations deal mostly with physical safety, leaving privacy and cybersecurity issues almost wholly unexamined. This seems to be a pattern now, true too of drone regulation, where regulatory bodies have jurisdiction over physical threats, not informational ones.

The EHang 184 autonomous aerial vehicle is unveiled at the EHang booth at CES International in January in Las Vegas. The drone is large enough to fit a human passenger. The EHang 184 autonomous aerial vehicle is unveiled at the EHang booth at CES International in January in Las Vegas. The drone is large enough to fit a human passenger. The idea: a drone taxi that can transport a single passenger for up to 23 minutes.

Look! Up in the sky! Is it a bird or is it a plane? If you're in Nevada, it could be the world's first passenger drone. The electric Ehang 184-passenger drone has been given clearance for testing in the airspace above the Silver State, the Guardian reported Wednesday. The drone can carry people inflight for 23 minutes.

The world's first passenger drone capable of autonomously carrying a person in the air for 23 minutes has been given clearance for testing in Nevada. Chinese firm Ehang, which unveiled the electric Ehang 184 passenger drone at CES in Las Vegas in January, has partnered with the Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems (NIAS) and the Governor's Office of Economic Development (Goed) to put the drone through testing and regulatory approval. Tom Wilczek, Goed's aerospace and defence specialist said: "The State of Nevada, through NIAS, will help guide Ehang through the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) regulatory process with the ultimate goal of achieving safe flight." The founder and chief executive of Ehang, Huazhi Hu, said the move would lay the foundation for the 184's commercialisation and kickstart the autonomous aerial transportation industry. Ehang hopes to begin testing later this year and will have to prove airworthiness to the FAA, with guidance from NIAS, before being able to operate in a wider capacity.