Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy drew a distinction between the advanced AI models that have raised alarms from some tech executives and the new capabilities being deployed to overhaul management of the nation’s airspace.
The guidance directs the Transportation Department and other agencies to “implement a plan to integrate space launch and reentry management into airspace and traffic control modernization efforts.”
Steven Bradbury, the agency’s deputy secretary, said AI has helped Transportation slash its software production timeline from 18 months down to 18 weeks.
The agency’s contract with Air Space Intelligence includes deployment of a system that it says will serve as “the new technological backbone” of a modernized Air Traffic Control System Command Center.
The government has been trying to modernize the U.S. national airspace system for decades, with little success. Trump’s Transportation Department secretary says this time is different.
The agency received over 12,000 applications in less than two days, making the effort “wildly successful,” according to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
The Federal Aviation Administration is using a challenge-based acquisition strategy that will require vendors to demonstrate, not just describe, their approach.
A proposal to extend the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice’s authority to mitigate threats from unmanned aircraft systems would also grant new counter-drone abilities to the FAA.
A group of bipartisan senators hoped to use the must-pass measure to pause rollouts of the Transportation Security Administration’s facial recognition technology at new airports.
A Senate amendment to the FAA reauthorization bill would pause additional rollout of the TSA’s facial recognition technology until Congress has reviewed the agency’s program.
New legislation attempts to improve NASA’s Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response to Operations program so firefighters can more effectively use drones.
Members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure pressed an FAA official on what it would take for the agency to modernize faster, including its plans to update a system that caused a nationwide ground stop last month.