The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is seeking to expand the use of drones to deliver mail, inspect bridges and conduct other services, Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said yesterday.
Chunghwa Post on April 22 tested drones to deliver packages from Pingtung County’s Donggang Township (東港) to the outlying island of Siaoliuchiou (小琉球) 13km away.
The Directorate-General of Highways on April 19 and 20 used drones to inspect Wuling Bridge (武嶺橋) on Provincial Highway No. 3 in Taoyuan’s Dasi District (大溪) during maintenance work.
Photo: Chen Hsin-yu, Taipei Times
Both were pilot projects under a program that would also allow drone developers to test their gear under ministry supervision at seaports, highways and freeways, among other locations, the Institute of Transportation said.
“In other countries, drones are used to deliver packages. Chunghwa Post, as a state-run firm, is obligated to deliver mail and packages to residents in mountainous areas and on outlying islands. The firm is tasked to test drones in its logistics services,” Wang said on the sidelines of a drone exhibition.
Mail delivery is expected to run more smoothly once drones are widely deployed, which would also lend support to the expansion of the domestic drone industry, he said.
“Taiwan has the technology and personnel needed to develop an uncrewed aerial vehicle industry. We should ensure that drone applications are closely connected with the industry,” Wang said. “Apart from working with the Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Education to support local innovators, we will also work with the Ministry of Economic Affairs to help local firms form partnerships with international manufacturers.”
In other news, the legislature’s Transportation Committee yesterday approved an amendment to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例), which would limit the number of reportable breaches of traffic regulations to 46 items.
The amendment stipulates that police can only issue multiple tickets to drivers for breaching the same rule if those breaches occur more than six minutes apart or on different blocks.
Last year, the police received about 6 million reports of traffic rule breaches, four times more than in 2016, Wang said.
“That has created a tremendous burden on our law enforcement personnel. Therefore, we want to clearly list the reportable offenses of traffic rules to eliminate frivolous ones,” he said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai