(CNN)You log on to a website and place a rush order. Minutes later, your order is processed and boxed at a warehouse. Within an hour, a speck appears on the horizon. It's an unmanned aerial vehicle -- commonly called a UAV or a drone -- and it's coming to deliver your order right to your front door. It sounds like science fiction, but it's reality -- in fact, it happened this month in China, where e-commerce giant Alibaba launched a limited pilot program using UAVs to deliver to customers who ordered a specific brand of tea. No one can say for sure whether drone delivery of consumer goods will become anything close to common. But it should concern every American when other nations are on the cutting edge of new technology and the United States is lagging behind.
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Sen. Cory Booker: Drone technology is literally taking off all across the world
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America should embrace the opportunities, Booker says
Alibaba experimenting with drones for delivery is just one high-profile example of @placeholder' possibility.
Unfortunately, they are long overdue, and the pace of rule setting is inhibiting America's competitiveness in the @placeholder technology race.