PrecisionHawk has announced a multiyear alliance with American Tower to make cell tower inspections safer and more efficient. PrecisionHawk will hand over its AI-backed cell tower inspection software to American Tower to use on upcoming inspections.
Yesterday PrecisionHawk was awarded two US patents for technology it developed for its unmanned traffic management (UTM) system. The two patents allow drones and manned aircraft to avoid each other while in flight.
Co-founder and former chief technology officer of DroneBase, Eli Tamanaha, is joining PrecisionHawk as Vice President of Strategic Initiatives reporting directly to CEO Michael Chasen. An interesting move for sure and one that the company says “underscores PrecisionHawk’s position as the vanguard of aerial intelligence that drives operational insights and as a drone industry pioneer.”
A commercial drone pilot from Rhode Island was making $2,000 a day back in 2015. Now he only gets about $175 dollars per day for the same work. Ever since the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) started to allow commercial drone flights the unmanned aerial devices have come down in price while at the same time their capabilities have improved and the competition has increased tremendously resulting in dramatically lower prices. Noticeably, the new competition is not only from other smaller players but increasingly from large companies such as General Electric, Intel Corp., Verizon Communications and other well-funded startups like PrecisionHawk and Airware.