All five of the key areas of regulations and government measures discussed in this article will remain in focus in the coming year. What changes and what remains the same in the DRI ranking will largely depend on the headway that governments are able to make in cooperating with private stakeholders to create the drone regulations that best help stimulate and facilitate a healthy drone industry. The global health pandemic will likely to continue to impact the industry, as demand for automation increases and consequently special permissions for various drone operations increase in number.

However, while special permissions go a long way to open the door towards more complex missions, they are ultimately only a small step compared to the standardisation of those complex missions through comprehensive regulations. Therefore, the true impact of COVID-19 will remain to be seen in the long term as the industry awaits further integration of drones into airspace, especially urban and suburban areas that are currently heavily restricted.

DRONEII’s token social scientist, Millie Radovic has a BA in International Relations from King’s College London and an MSc from the University of Oxford. Earlier, she amongst other things researched Science & Tech policy for the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Brussels. At DRONEII she particularly looks at drones and international development & global health projects.