State Farm only insurance company invited to Federal drone rulemaking committee

Insurance Company - Drone flying over buildings

The insurer was the only one invited to take part in the Federal Aviation Administration’s committee.

The Federal rulemaking committee for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and drones has invited State Farm as the only insurance company to take part.

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) invited the largest auto and home insurer in the United States.

The FAA asked the insurance company to take part in the UAS Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC). State Farm was the only insurer to receive such an invitation and membership on the UAS BVLOS ARC is by invitation only. It currently includes a spectrum of leading aviation industry stakeholders representing more than eighty organizations.

State Farm’s Maria Hagglund (Law Department) and Todd Binion, Claim Section Manager in P&C Claims will represent the insurer as alternate and primary ARC members respectively.Insurance Company - Committee New Rules

The insurance company accepted the invitation as its mission aligns with that of UAS BVLOS ARC.

“Our participation on this ARC aligns very well with who we are at State Farm,” said Binion. “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.”

FAA will look to the UAS BVLOS ARC for recommendations in the development of a performance-based, technology agnostic regulatory framework. Its purpose will be to normalize scalable, safe, environmentally friendly and economically feasible BVLOS operation. A similar approach was be used by the FAA for the development of recommendations for rules regarding Remote ID and UAS operation over people. Those rules were released last year in December and were implemented earlier in 2021.

The insurance company takes pride in being a UAS technology testing and adoption leader in the industry. It was the first insurer to receive approval for conducting commercial UAS operations. The FAA cited a number of State Farm’s comments throughout its rulemaking process when it finalized the Small UAS Rule.

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