FAA complexity, but opportunity with drones

As the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) continues to take steps to ease restrictions on commercial drone use, State Farm and Amazon have become the most recent household names permitted to test unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) or unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).

State Farm, the first insurer to be granted an exemption from the current ban on the commercial use of a UAS was allowed to use the vehicles for outdoor research and development, including using imagery and analytics in underwriting, re-underwriting, catastrophe response, roof inspection, and claim resolutions settings. Ultimately one of the most important uses State Farm and other insurers would have for these vehicles may be in evaluating property damage from and responding to natural disasters.