Apple is among the companies who have applied to take part in a new series of drone tests that the U.S. Department of Transportation is expected to announce today, according to Reuters. Citing people familiar with the matter, Apple joins a roster of 200 companies which also include Amazon, Intel, and Qualcomm, who are looking to participate in the program that would allow for testing of drones in otherwise restricted use cases, such as night flights and those that extend beyond an operator’s line of sight. The experiments will be hosted by ten winning state, local, or tribal governments that have in turn partnered with companies that will be participating in the tests, and a U.S. official notes that the list of winners include projects focused on package delivery, environmental monitoring, precision agriculture, pipeline oversight and integrating drones near airports, although it’s unclear where Apple may fit into this, although a late 2016 report suggested that Apple has been at least contemplating the use of drones for improving Apple Maps’ data. [via MacRumors]
