By L. Gordon Corvitz
Jeff Bezos is known for refusing to suffer fools. His reported put-downs include: “Why are you wasting my life?,” “Are you lazy or just incompetent?” and “I’m sorry, did I take my stupid pills today?” Imagine someone as impatient as the Amazon CEO being forced to move at the speed of bureaucrats.
This explains Amazon’s decision to take on the Obama administration’s Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA is years late in approving commercial use of drones and has violated numerous congressional deadlines. Mr. Bezos says regulatory inertia—not massive R&D—is blocking Amazon’s futuristic plan to have low-flying vehicles deliver within 30 minutes the 85% of its packages weighing less than five pounds.
When Mr. Bezos went on “60 Minutes” in 2013 to announce Amazon Prime Air, many thought he was joking. It’s now clear his appearance was just the first high-profile effort to pressure Washington to allow this next new thing.
Read the rest here.
No comments:
Post a Comment