Drone company makes first-of-its-kind ‘blind’ drone flight

Earlier this year in Alaska, two drones flew toward a manned vehicle as if they were playing a high-tech game of chicken. One of the drones was piloted by a human; the other was equipped with Iris Automation’s Casia onboard collision-avoidance system. The goal: to not hit the manned vehicle. In the head-to-head matchup, the Iris Automation system won 95% of the time.

Those numbers gave the Federal Aviation Administration enough confidence in the tech company’s system to allow it to make history, and a few weeks ago the history-making drone flight took place over Kansas.

Iris Automation, which was named to the 2019 CNBC Upstart 100 list on Tuesday, successfully completed the first…