Bloomington, IL,
23
August
2021
|
08:13 AM
America/Chicago

State Farm Joins Federal Rulemaking Committee for UAS and Drones

Is the only insurance company invited to participate.

A pioneer in the use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), State Farm® has been invited to join the Federal rulemaking committee for unmanned aircraft and drones.

State Farm, the nation’s largest auto and home insurer, has been invited by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to participate on the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC). Membership on the UAS BVLOS ARC is by invitation only and includes a diverse set of leading aviation industry stakeholders from more than 80 organizations. State Farm was the only insurer invited to participate. Todd Binion (P&C Claims) and Maria Hagglund (Law Department) will represent State Farm as primary and alternate ARC members respectively.

“Our participation on this ARC aligns very well with who we are at State Farm,” said Todd Binion, Claim Section Manager in P&C Claims. “We’re the industry leader and we take that role very seriously. We’re laser focused on driving innovation and leveraging technology to serve our policyholders in more ways. Yet, at our core, we’re committed to ensuring that this can be done in a safe, responsible manner. These principles and our experiences as a leading UAS operator will guide our contributions towards shaping these future regulations.”

The UAS BVLOS ARC will provide recommendations to the FAA for a performance-based, technology agnostic regulatory framework to normalize safe, scalable, economically viable and environmentally advantageous BVLOS operations. The FAA took a similar approach to develop recommendations for new rules for Remote ID and UAS operations over people. These rules were released in December 2020 and were implemented earlier this year.

State Farm continues to be an industry leader in the testing and adoption of UAS technology. State Farm was the first insurer approved to conduct commercial UAS operations. When the Small UAS Rule was finalized, the FAA cited numerous comments provided by State Farm during the rule making process. During the 2018 hurricane season, State Farm was granted two operational waivers permitting operations over people (OOP) and flights beyond the pilot’s visual line of sight (BVLOS) for catastrophe response in across multiple states. The following year, State Farm received a first-of-its-kind waiver for BVLOS and OOP on a nationwide basis. State Farm sponsored novel testing at Virginia Tech that resulted in a waiver enabling safe operations that may involve flight over moving vehicles.

The UAS BVLOS ARC began meeting in June and final recommendations will be provided to the FAA by the end of this year.

 

About State Farm®:

The mission of State Farm is to help people manage the risks of everyday life, recover from the unexpected, and realize their dreams. State Farm and its affiliates are the largest providers of auto and home insurance in the United States. Its 19,300 agents and nearly 55,000 employees serve approximately 86 million policies and accounts – which includes auto, fire, life, health, commercial policies and financial services accounts. Commercial auto insurance, along with coverage for rentersbusiness ownersboats and motorcycles, is available. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company is the parent of the State Farm family of companies. State Farm is ranked No. 39 on the 2021 Fortune 500 list of largest companies. For more information, please visit http://www.statefarm.com.

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