Norway’s Oslo Fjord may look utterly idyllic, but vast quantities of rubbish lurk beneath its picture-perfect surface—including countless unwanted cars. The port authority recently announced plans to use underwater drones to scan the fjord for this junk, which will then direct an electric-powered ship with a crane to clear it from the seabed.

As well as cleaning up plastic, drones are now used to monitor and track animals. In parts of southern and eastern Africa, thousands of elephant and rhino are being targeted for their tusks and horns, which are then sold into China and Vietnam. The relentless war on poaching has reported a major turning point thanks to the advent of drones, which are being used to tag animals and collect samples, as well as monitor vulnerable conservation areas from above.

These brilliant efforts are also happening in the sea. The Ocean Alliance has used drones to collect marine samples—specifically, mucus from whales. This not only provides invaluable research, it also allows governments to track down and prosecute poachers.

“This sort of development is so important if we’re going to keep these magnificent animals alive,” says conservationist Sean Lee-Davies. “We owe it to our grandchildren to use every bit of technology we can to stop poaching.”

Road accident response could be transformed in the next few years as live data from the site can be shared in real time with emergency services, so they know what to expect when they arrive. Drones would also quickly document the evidence from an accident, reducing the time it takes to clear the road. Equally, this data could be sold to insurance companies, which would provide the emergency services with a new revenue stream.

Central Africa is leading the game in this sort of drone technology, specifically Rwanda, where drones are literally lifesavers. A company called Zipline has used them to transport more than 5,500 units of blood across the country over the past year, earning it the nickname “Uber for blood”.

Trials of defibrillator-carrying drones are also under way, particularly in China where rural hospitals have a higher heart attack death rate than those in the city. On average, these drones arrived 16 minutes faster than the emergency services, which could be the difference between life and death for someone suffering a cardiac arrest.

And then there is Tanzania, which is this year launching what it claims will be the world’s largest drone delivery network. Under the scheme, the firm will deliver not only blood, but also HIV medication and antimalarials, UV tubes and other medical supplies to four bases in Tanzania.

Drones can also be used to monitor disease in emergency situations, particularly in places where there are displaced people and flooding, and therefore provide a temporary wifi or mobile signal for areas recovering from a natural disaster. AT&T’s Flying COW drone, for example, provided data, voice and text services to Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, saving countless lives.

You open an app and request a ride—so far, so familiar. But in the future, instead of a man in a beaten-up Honda picking you up, you’ll be whisked into the sky by an autonomous drone, soaring above gridlocked traffic and arriving at your destination in a fraction of the time the journey would have taken by road.

This is the future of urban travel according to companies such as Boeing, Daimler, Airbus and Uber. Between them they’re investing considerable resources in what Uber has called “a potential new mass-scale form of urban transportation”.

As well as transporting people, delivery companies such as Amazon, JD.com and Alibaba have invested heavily in drone technology for transporting goods. JD.com completed its first drone-led delivery outside of China earlier this year, sending a flat-pack box to a remote island in Indonesia. This advance allows companies to offer next-day delivery in inaccessible parts of Asia, transforming the regional e-commerce industry. 

Directors are having a major love-in with drones, and we can understand why. Drones can go places that no other devices can, and in ways that even the most sophisticated photography equipment simply can't match. From 200 feet up in the air, a rock-solid steady shot can be taken by a drone, which is something that couldn't be done until very recently. The only thing even close to that would have been a helicopter shot, and they're not only big and unweildly, they're also very expensive. 

Today, almost every shot taken from above will have been filmed by a drone—a major transformation for the industry in less than five years. And as films such as Drone and Eye in the Sky—and television series like Black Mirror—illustrate, drones are also taking an increasingly starring role in front of the camera too. Which is understandable given how they are set to dominate all our lives. Just hopefully not in the way Black Mirror envisions them...