Silicon Valley has been temporarily grounded. From 2 p.m. until midnight on Super Bowl Sunday, pretty much all of the southern end of the San Francisco Bay Area, including San Jose and most of the Valley will be off limits to unmanned autonomous aircraft, otherwise known as drones.
“Temporary Flight Restrictions will prohibit certain aircraft operations, including unmanned aircraft operations, within a 32-mile radius of the stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. on game day,” reads a statement from the Federal Aviation Administration.
That means that the region’s resident tech titans like Google GOOGL -3.60% and Apple AAPL -2.96% will need to keep all projects requiring quadcopters and other unmanned aerial vehicles on the ground during the game and the after-party. For one day only, it seems, even the Valley’s vaunted startup “unicorns” will be unable to fly… their drones, at least.
