A Silicon Valley for drones in North Dakota
Sparsely populated region has the space for testing and plenty of expertise already in place
Fargo, North Dakota
"CALIFORNIA and New York want what we've got," said Shawn Muehler, a 30-year-old Fargo resident, gazing at a horizon of empty fields, silos, windbreak trees and hardly any people. A winged craft traces the air, mapping a field with pinpoint accuracy for his startup, a drone software company called Botlink. "They like drones, but they've got a steep learning curve ahead."
For years, entrepreneurs have come here to farm and to drill for oil and natural gas. Now a new, tech-savvy generation is grabbing a piece of the growing market for drone technology and officials want to help them do it here, where there is plenty of open space and - unlike in other sparsely populated states - lots of expertise already in place.
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