Drones to drop deliveries at doorstep in Amazon plan
Amazon today unveiled its latest weapon in the delivery market – unmanned aerial drones that will deliver goods to your door 30 minutes after being ordered.
Fresh out of Amazon's research labs in the United States, the Prime Air drone is already being used for test deliveries. Amazon said today: "One day, Prime Air vehicles will be as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road today."
Speaking on US TV, Jeff Bezos, founder and boss of the online retail giant, said: "I know this looks like science fiction. It's not.
"We can do half-hour delivery and we can carry objects, we think, up to 5lb."
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Safety is top of the list when it comes to the rules drawn up by the US's Federal Aviation Administration and Amazon's own testing.
The firm says the drones will be built with 'multiple redundancies' – several layers of back-up systems in case a fault develops – and will be designed to commercial aviation standards.
The mini drones would cover areas within a 10-mile radius of fulfilment centres. While that would give Amazon coverage of many of the US's urban areas, in the UK, where many of its warehouses are in rural areas such as Rugeley, it may have to build new sites to provide the coverage.
However, the UK's Civil Aviation Authority says it will not give permission for the use of drones until it is happy they can automatically 'sense and avoid' other aircraft.
