Drone industry experts say that while new federal regulations would limit many commercial applications for now, uses such as Amazon’s planned package delivery and even pizza drop-offs will come eventually.

The Federal Aviation Administration on Sunday proposed safety rules for small commercial drones that would require that operators have the drones within sight and ban flying them over bystanders or higher than 500 feet.

Companies including Amazon and Google are expected to file comments about the proposed rules after their publication in the Federal Register, expected this week.

The proposed rules are “a stepping stone for coming up with policies for how delivery drones are going to operate,” said P.K. Kannan, a University of Maryland marketing professor who is researching how retail businesses can use drones. “I don’t think the U.S. government wants to stifle (a) business that is really going to take off.” Read more in USA Today (External link).