Amazon, the world's largest online
retailer, is testing drones for the same-day package delivery, a service
called Prime Air, as the company works to improve efficiency and speed
in getting products to consumers. In the near future the army of small
drones with orange boxed attached to them would fly over cities, buzzing
of new delivery.
Amazon
CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled the 30-minute delivery with a new service Prime
Air on the CBS show 60 minutes, and Amazon has since posted a video
advertising the new service.
The
CEO said the gadgets, called octocopters, can carry as much as five
pounds within a 10-mile radius of an Amazon fulfillment center. Amazon
may start using the drones, which can make a delivery within 30 minutes,
within five years pending Federal Aviation Administration approval,
Bezos said.
"I know this looks like science fiction, but it's not," Mr Bezos said in the interview. "It will work, and it will happen, and it’s gonna be a lot of fun," he added. "We can do half-hour delivery... and we can carry objects, we think, up to five pounds (2.3kg), which covers 86 percent of the items that we deliver," he said.
Amazon
has been secretly testing its "octocopter" drones — named for their
eight sets of rotors — from its headquarters in Seattle, Washington, for
several months. The octocopters would collect smaller-sized packages in
orange buckets, deliver them to customers' doors, then return to base.
Amazon
claims that the new program of drone delivery is to be ready to launch
in 2015, so long as the FAA's rules allow for them to enable air
delivery. Currently, it is prohibited to use small drones like those
Amazon plans to use without special permission. The main concerns are
safety, as drones cannot avoid other aircrafts in the air.
In addition, some groups voice concerns that the privacy could be breached as these drones could be equipped with cameras. The
US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has approved the use of drones
for police and government agencies, issuing about 1,400 permits over
the past several years.
Civilian air space is expected to be opened up to all kinds of drones in the US by 2015 and in Europe by 2016.
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