Amazon is still pushing hard to move towards drone deliveries, with their Prime Air drones, as they seek out faster shipping times for their customer. They successfully tested their new drones yesterday with a successful delivery in Cambridge, England, where they delivered a brand new Amazon Fire TV and a bag of popcorn to a customer. The entire process from finishing their order supposedly took about 13 minutes to complete.
Now that would completely change the way we shop if we can order something online and have it at our door within minutes. The argument of going to a store and buying something right now versus having to wait for it to ship may vanish in this case. Assuming of course that authorities will allow Amazon to roll it out in their country, state, city (etc).
Currently the FAA (US) is still saying no to companies who want to move towards delivery drones (Amazon is not alone in these trials) as they don’t see things as fit just yet. There are too many unknown variable and safety concerns before they would ever consider giving it a try. Not to mention they break the current rules of drone registration. These rules are ever shifting, but right now they do not allow for autonomous usage as such–nor remote control from a distance where the operator doesn’t personally have a clear line of site within their physical presence.
Right now Amazon is limited to England for their testing grounds as they test the new service in Beta with a limited but vast selection of product that customers can choose from. The idea is pretty cool and might work one day, but drones will most likely have to become a whole lot smarter before it reaches the US.
For more information about Amazon’s Prime Air, visit here.
