CBS Evening News aired a two-minute segment on August 29 about a thermal drone that finds lost pets for the city of Mission Viejo, California, and the same drone class sits in the Federal Communications Commission’s proposed ban on foreign-made “military-grade” aircraft. The Mission Viejo drone cost almost $17,000, paid for with private donations. On camera it tracked a terrier in the carpool lane of an Orange County freeway and guided ground units to it in minutes.
The FCC’s proposal, open for public comment until September 2, lists any drone carrying a thermal imaging sensor among seven categories it wants pulled from import and sale. Owners keep flying what they already have. Cities that want their own copy of the Mission Viejo program, and Kyle Werner told CBS other agencies are already calling him, would be shopping in a market the FCC intends to close.
I have covered Mission Viejo’s pet rescues since the first one in November, and I have watched pilots in New York run the same searches for years. This is the first time a network newscast has put the technique in front of a national audience, three days before the docket shuts.
CBS Put A Freeway Dog Rescue On The Evening News
Correspondent Carter Evans’ report for CBS News opens with a small terrier loose on an Orange County freeway. Mission Viejo Animal Services put its drone overhead, spotted the dog in the carpool lane, and talked officers to it over the radio. The whole rescue took minutes, according to Werner…