Drones Swoop Down Paris' Champs-Elysees In Festival

Drones are racing through central Paris - but they’re not hunting for terrorists, they’ve just been brought out for fun.

The city is hosting its first Drone Festival on Sunday, including an international race along the Champs-Elysees. Drones of varying shapes and sizes are zipping along the avenue, lined with trees and luxury stores, in a circuit that stops just shy of the Arc de Triomphe.

While drones are increasingly used by French security services, civilians are forbidden from flying them over Paris without special permission. Paris City Hall authorized them for Sunday’s event, aimed at introducing the public to France’s civilian drone industry.

France saw a spate of mysterious drone flyovers last year over sensitive sites that worried the authorities.

Michigan would no longer require that someone be inside a self-driving car while testing it on public roads under legislation passed unanimously Wednesday by the state Senate, where backers touted the measures as necessary to keep the U.S. auto industry’s home state ahead of the curve on rapidly advancing technology.

The expansive bills , which are on track for final legislative approval by year’s end and are supported by Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, would make Michigan a rare state to explicitly end a requirement that a researcher be present inside an autonomous test vehicle. The researcher would have to “promptly” take control of its movements remotely if necessary, or the vehicle would have to be able to stop or slow on its own.