LIFT Act Mandates AI for Drone Waivers, Rushes BVLOS Rules in Six Months, and Funds Local Flying Taxis

The Local Innovation for Flight Technologies Act of 2025 (LIFT Act) is essentially a massive accelerator pedal for the drone and flying taxi industries. It sets aggressive deadlines for federal regulators to clear the way for advanced air travel, focusing heavily on getting drones flying Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) and launching local electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) projects.

The BVLOS Blitz: Six Months to Rewrite the Rules

If you’ve ever wondered why commercial drones aren’t delivering your packages or inspecting solar farms across state lines, it’s because current rules require the pilot to keep the drone in sight—a major hurdle for logistics. Section 3 of the LIFT Act aims to obliterate that hurdle. It gives the Secretary of Transportation just six months to finalize a new rule allowing routine BVLOS operations. That’s an incredibly tight timeline for the FAA, which is known for moving at glacial speed on safety regulations. The pressure is on to open up the commercial drone market, but the concern here is whether safety standards will be robust enough when the regulatory clock is ticking that fast. If you live near a potential drone corridor, this bill means your airspace is about to get a lot busier, very quickly.

AI Takes Over the Paperwork

Section 5 is where the law gets high-tech. The bill mandates that the Department of Transportation start using Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools within 120 days to speed up the review of drone waiver applications (specifically those under FAA Part 107). Right now, if a company wants to fly a drone in a way that’s outside the standard rules—say, over people or at night—they need a special waiver, and the process can take forever. The AI is supposed to evaluate the risk of proposed flights, look for similar past approvals, and help the FAA decide which routine operations should just become standard rules. For drone operators and businesses, this could mean getting approvals in weeks instead of months, unlocking significant operational efficiency. The risk? If the AI is poorly trained or its safety assessments are flawed, the FAA could inadvertently approve risky operations.

Funding the Flying Taxi Future

Section 6 establishes a pilot program to hand out grants to state, local, and tribal governments to deploy eVTOL aircraft—think of them as electric flying taxis or air ambulances—in their communities. Local governments have 90 days to partner with a private sector eVTOL company and submit a plan. The goal is to get these advanced air mobility projects off the ground fast, covering everything from cargo delivery to emergency medical response, particularly in rural areas. This is a direct federal investment designed to spur infrastructure development (like 'vertiports') and create a domestic market for these new aircraft. If your city or state gets selected, you could see a new form of air travel hitting your area within a few years.

Prioritizing American-Made Drones

Finally, Section 7 introduces a preference for domestic manufacturing. It directs the Secretary of Transportation to prioritize the integration of drones manufactured in the United States into the national airspace system, “as much as the existing laws allow.” While the intent is clearly to boost American jobs and reduce reliance on foreign-made tech, the language is vague. This prioritization could create a significant competitive disadvantage for foreign drone manufacturers and might raise questions about trade compliance, depending on how strictly the FAA decides to enforce this preference.