Unmanned aircraft are the future. Not just the future of the United States military, who already use unmanned planes for spying, scouting, and attack missions. No, drones are shaping up to be the future of package delivery, at least if Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has his way. Amazon wants to give drones real-world applications, and in their case, that application is same-day package delivery within 30 minutes of when an order is placed. Amazon has announced Amazon Air Prime, which will deliver your package via drone. Here’s a short sample video showing how the process would work, when it eventually launches.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98BIu9dpwHU
“The hardest challenge in making this happen is demonstrating to the standards of the FAA that this is a safe thing to do. This is years of additional work at this point,” said Amazon boss Jeff Bezos during an interview with 60 Minutes. “The most important things are the big pieces of stability — the rocks in the future — that you can count on. For example in Amazon’s retail business, I know that people will want low prices 10 years from now. I know they will want fast delivery.”
The FAA is currently examining rules on commercial drone flights. Rules are expected to be in place by 2015, and Amazon is expected to have a fleet of drones ready to launch as soon as those rules are settled. I’m sure that these rules will be in place later, rather than sooner; after all, this is the FAA we’re talking about.
If you’d like to know more, check out Amazon Prime Air’s website.
Tags: faa, amazon, amazon air delivery, amazon prime, amazon prime air, amazon planning drone delivery service, amazon drone delivery, 60 minutes, technology, amazon air delivery, federal aviation administration, jeff bezos