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Google's introduction to Project Wings.
Google, like Amazon and others, believes drones are the future of package delivery, and it's working hard to make sure the future arrives sooner rather than later. On Monday, Google's product lead for its Project Wings drone effort, David Vos, told attendees of the Air Traffic Control Association conference outside of Washington, D.C., that the company, which has registered two drones with the FAA already, has a pretty aggressive timeline in mind.
"Our goal is to have commercial business up and running in 2017," Vos said.
A Google spokesperson confirmed to BuzzFeed News that the company does hope to be operating a delivery service with its Wing vehicles by 2017.
Google — and everyone else — has a long way to go before deliveries become a reality. Just last week there were calls in the United States Senate to regulate a drone industry still very much in its infancy. As drones become more popular and companies like Google work to find commercial uses for them, regulatory decisions will increasingly shape the development of the industry.