On 60 Minutes last night, Amazon revealed that robots, not people, will be delivering your video game to your doorstep in the near future. A brand new service, entitled Amazon Prime Air, will actually used unmanned air drones for package delivery. The drones, nicknamed octocopters because of their eight propellers, are about the size of a remote controlled airplane and can carry small packages up to 5lbs. This makes up 86 percent of Amazon orders.
The drones would be able to fly through the air assisted only by a GPS. They are able to fly in a 10 mile radius from an Amazon fulfillment center which, according to Amazon, will cover a very significant portion of the population in well devloped areas. The service will allow Amazon orders to quite literally be delivered to shoppers in 30 minutes or less. Simply click, pay, and watch an episode Goof Troop, and your brand new Call of Duty: Ghosts prestige edition will appear at your door. Now that’s a care-package.
The new service will not be availavle until at least 2015, as there are plenty of bugs to work out. Aside from technical problems… like the possibility of an unmanned drone crashing through your window or delivering a package on your roof, the Federal Aviation Administration is still hashing out rules for commercial use of unmanned aerial vechiles. After all, if these drones randomly crash over a highway they could cause a massive pile-up.
That being said, Amazon hopes that this will become the norm for package delivery, and perhaps delivery in general.
Source: 60 Minutes