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Jakarta Post

The next revolution will come from drones

Everyone has heard of the Titanic

Vishal Bhargava (The Jakarta Post)
Mumbai, India
Fri, April 26, 2019

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The next revolution will come from drones

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span>Everyone has heard of the Titanic. Everyone has heard of JP Morgan. Not many are however aware that John Pierpont Morgan actually owned the majestic Titanic that sank in 1912 after colliding with an iceberg. Almost every expert labeled the rescue process as shoddy although they hailed the rescue effort of the Carpathia ship that eventually saved only one-third of the passengers on the Titanic.

Over a century later the world witnessed the colossal damage done to the iconic Notre Dame de Paris. The fire devastated the 850-year-old church in nine hours before it was extinguished.

While government agencies moved swiftly there is one company whose products and technology that came to their rescue — Chinese drone manufacturer, DJI. Drones are unmanned aerial vehicles that can be remotely controlled to fly autonomously — think a tiny helicopter without a pilot inside.

DJI is in a unique position in the competitive era of business. It holds a market share of 70 percent in manufacture of commercial drones that allow for aerial photography and videography. In this Notre Dame fire its drones were used by Parisian fire-fighters to find the best positions to aim the fire hoses for extinguishing the fire.

The company which has revenues of almost US$3 billion will only rise further as more sectors find relevance in its usage. The current usage has been dominantly in defense or disaster management where it is used in real-time surveillance to delivery of essential goods.

Massive investments in parts for autonomous and electric cars have brought down prices of components like batteries, navigation, processors etc. These same components are used in drone manufacturing which has resulted in a decline in prices of drones.

This has brought down the price of a basic drone to as low as $30 with the top range running into thousands of dollars. This commercialization will only rise with newer sectors being addressed by drones. A Chinese drone company, XAG, has already grabbed a 50 percent market in the nascent agricultural drone market by developing drones that can spray pesticides on vast farmlands.

The drone is faster than individuals in spraying and removes the safety hazard to farmers who would otherwise have high exposure to these chemicals. For China this will help boost agricultural productivity and lower dependence on food imports. Countries with declining populations involved in agriculture are a low-hanging fruit for such drone manufacturers.

Developing nations like Indonesia undergoing an infrastructure boom through construction of roads, ports, airports, etc. will also see high merit in utilization of drones. Drones will be of relevance at the pre-construction stage of designing and planning while even for site monitoring and project execution. Drone mapping platform, DroneDeploy, estimates that over 50 percent of drones used in the construction industry are for progress tracking and communication purposes.

This can allow timely completion of projects and ensuring minimal cost escalations. The National Highway Authority of India has been leveraging the technology to build almost 15,000 kilometers of roads wherein the drone is used for highway inspection, aerial mapping and monitoring.

Remote locations across the globe are the most vulnerable in terms of access to basic supplies. Silicon Valley based startup, Zipline, is providing 11 million people blood and vaccine supplies in isolated parts of Ghana and Rwanda that lack last-mile delivery infrastructure. The tool in their hand: Drones that are electric and travel at 100 km/ hour flying over mountains, rivers and poor roads to land at the Zipline distribution center. The five-hour truck ride for many hospitals to source medicines has been replaced with a 30-minute delivery.

Productivity will be enhanced across sectors with PriceWaterhouse Coopers reporting that drone technology has the potential to increase United Kingdom’s gross domestic product by 2 percent by 2030.

The sector has also seen rising interest from venture capital and private equity with investment rising from $42 million in 2012 to over $3 billion currently. Investments have largely been towards start-ups in China, Israel and the United States.

Now with giants like Amazon and Google getting into the fray for using drones to make deliveries the profile of the sector will change dramatically.

Does the sector have any drawbacks? Several.

First concern is regulation. Most nations have regulation based on weight of drones which itself has a range of less than 250 grams at the Nano-level and over 150 kg for the large ones. Yet like with most new technologies the two principles that must guide drones are, first, safety; and second, privacy.

Safety norms are already being challenged. Four months ago departures from Heathrow airport in London were halted following sighting of a drone since they are not permitted within airport boundary restrictions. New rules in UK have banned all drones flying above 400 feet and within 1 km of airport boundaries. Violations come with a punishment that could lead to imprisonment. The key however lies in introducing safety tests and licenses for operating licenses (like for drivers and pilots).

The other drawback is a potential invasion of privacy. Residents in almost every city where drones are employed have complained about the drones’ camera which records videos and photos of nearby surroundings while making a delivery. There is merit in this concern and one wonders if there is a solution to this since a drones’ camera feature is going to be of high importance to ensure seamless delivery and avoiding collisions from aerial creatures.

Others have complained about the noise generated from these drones — a concern that should be fixed by tech giants sooner rather than later.

The biggest concern is the one that almost every new technology has to face — hurting employment. Will current labor in agriculture be needed if drones can solve the problem of crop monitoring and spraying pesticide at speeds which are 1/30th of humans? Will there be reduced dependence on site surveyors or monitors in large infrastructure projects?

The examples are numerous across industries. Like with the internet, automation and artificial intelligence, governments need to embrace it rather than fight it.

Drones are coming.

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The writer is vice president of strategy at Cogencis Information Services.

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