I Went to the Drone World Expo and Saw the Future. It Sounds Like Bees

(buzzing)

[Narrator] Do you hear that?

That high pitched buzz is the sound of the future.

The future of business,

according to just about everyone here at the two day

Drone World Expo in the heart of Silicon Valley.

There are big drones and little drones,

drones that do flips, and drones that do actual work,

like mapping mining sites and monitoring agriculture.

Check out this drone, called a Flexrotor.

It can take off like a helicopter,

then pivot in midair to fly like a plane.

It's great for surveillance, and it costs $200,000.

But hey, that's cheaper than a Gulfstream.

(upbeat music)

Exhibitors put drones in cages of mesh, dancing them around.

After all, everyone loves drones,

but no one wants a rotor in the eye.

Folks here are positively giddy,

and no small part because the drone industry

is worth billions of dollars.

Specifically, five billion in 2013.

That's expected to soar to almost 12 billion in 2023.

More and more hobbyists are taking to the sky.

A drone racing league is launching next year,

and Amazon has plans to use drones to deliver packages,

which may or may not be a totally ridiculous idea.

It's no wonder then, that the FAA has been struggling

with the question of drone regulation.

There are rules already in place,

but recently a task force of private companies

sent the FAA their recommendations

for reforming these regulations.

Yeah it's all kind of a mess, but fear not drone members,

drone lawyers are already buzzing.

(soft techno music)