Amazon has completed its first drone delivery through its Amazon Prime Air. For now, the service is available in the U.K.
Jeff Bezos, Amazon's CEO, announced that Amazon would be delivering through drone service three years ago. Ever since this was announced, customers had been wondering how it would be done by prioritizing the safety of their orders. Paul Misener, Amazon's vice president of global public policy, answered the interview with Yahoo, stating that they aim to deliver orders within 30 minutes. He also gave several details about the said drone service.
These delivery drones have a weight of 55 pounds, and they will be able to carry 5 pounds of parcel more. Their flight ranges will be more than 10 miles. And answering the safety question, Misener said that drones were equipped with sensors that let them avoid obstacles that are in their way. Also, a technician has access to a camera in the drone despite it being autonomous.
According to Seeker, Amazon has already completed its first successful drone service in Cambridge, England, through a privatized trial last Dec. 7, to deliver an Amazon Fire TV box and a bag of popcorn to a customer named only as Richard B. The whole process of ordering, loading and shipping just took 13 minutes. He also added that they are yet to decide on the price of the courier service.
Despite this success, customers are yet to be thrilled because Amazon’s drone service is still in its trial period with also the FAA issue involved. The FAA issue deals with the grounding implementation in the US with having drones autonomous without pilots go parallel to the policy. Amazon suggests to the US, that a 200-foot high portion in the sky be designated only for drone deliveries.
Amazon is still uncertain if they are to be given regulatory approval by the US.
A drone delivery race is also in chase, with Amazon, Google, Walmart, 7-Eleven and Domino as participants. 7-Eleven was the first actually to successfully delivered a chicken sandwich and a hot coffee to a customer near Nevada. Pizza chain Domino’s Pizza launched a successful drone pizza delivery to New Zealand this past November. Tech Times also stated that Google is also initiating a drone delivery test under the name project “Wing.” Some reports said that Waltermart is also studying drone deliveries as well.
