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Drone programs can expand traffic management and bridge inspection opportunities for states, but they can also create savings to benefit other projects, according to one transportation official whose agency has been using the devices for nearly a year.

The millions of small civilian drones plying the nation’s skies can cause significant damage to airliners and business jets in a midair collision, new research commissioned by the Federal Aviation Administration concluded.

Mercedes-Benz, conducting the biggest test using drones to ship everyday items such as ground coffee and cellphones, said the mini-aircraft completed 100 drop-offs to strategically placed vans in Zurich with a perfect safety record, and more deliveries are planned for next year.

Amazon.com Inc.’s development of package-delivery drones is progressing to the point where the company is now thinking a lot about geese.

UPS Inc. completed a successful test of a truck-mounted delivery drone at a Florida blueberry farm last week, demonstrating how unmanned aerial devices might be used as part of the company’s residential delivery service and as a way to cut costs by reducing the number of miles traveled by UPS trucks to make deliveries in rural locations.

Retail giant Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer, dropping off a Fire TV device and a bag of popcorn to a house in the English countryside 13 minutes after receiving an online order.

U.S. aviation regulators approved commercial drone applications so quickly in recent years that they missed safety violations and took few enforcement actions, a government watchdog report concluded.

From Amazon.com Inc. to Domino’s Pizza, technology giants and retailers have dreamed of drone deliveries for years. One Chinese e-commerce giant intends to make it a full-fledged reality by 2017.

The latest Google drones have just started taking flight in the real world. But the team behind the technology is slowing down, trimming headcount and shelving initiatives as the experimental unit becomes the latest target of tightening budgets across parent company Alphabet Inc.