You can teach drones to fly together. Just ask their instructor

Researchers at the University of Southern California are teaching tiny drones to fly in packs for safety, search and rescue and other social missions. LOS ANGELES -- Rarely a day goes by without tales of another drone advancement, usually for deliveries to a remote area, something Amazon and other companies are pursuing. University of Southern California students Wolfgang Hoenig and James Preiss check drones before they take flight on March 8, 2017, in Los Angeles. It's not here yet, but another futuristic use of drones is having large groups of quadcopters in packs, working together like bees, to assist in search and rescue, fire safety, coastal surveillance and other useful actions. Researchers at the University of Southern California are hard at work at just that, looking to spend the next five years perfecting synchronized drones for prime time.