Amazon has shared additional information about its new Prime Air drone delivery initiative. Amazon hasn’t made any secret of the fact that it’s looking outside of the standard delivery box to try and introduce a worldwide initiative that would see customer orders delivered via a flying drone. However, when it was first introduced back in 2013, some assumed it was a joke designed to piggy back on the fact that drones were a big discussion point at the time. Amazon’s continual development of the Prime Air program suggests that it’s dedicated to rolling this out as a viable delivery solution eventually.
Amazon describes Prime Air as “a future delivery system from Amazon designed to safely get packages to customers in 30 minutes or less using small unmanned aerial vehicles, also called drones”. The aim of the program appears to be to not only think outside of the box when it comes to innovating ways in which packages can be delivered to customers, but to also dramatically enhance the service that the monolithic online retailer already provides to customers.
The newly updated Prime Air page provides a whole heap of new content for those interested in the new deliver initiative. Amazon has provided a first glance at its new look unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones as we generally call them, as well as linked to high resolution images of the vehicles that interested viewers can download. There’s also video content that shows the new aerial vehicles in action, as well as an interaction with the official Amazon Android app to order an item. The video then gives a quick overview of the order process and how that is fulfilled by the Amazon factory infrastructure and ultimately sent out for delivery via the drone system.
It’s the additional information that Amazon has seen fit to provide that will appeal to most. It’s all well and good seeing visual representations of the drones, but it’s the actual execution of the Prime Air program that will ultimately see it fail or succeed. Amazon has stipulated that Prime Air would be used to deliver packages that weigh up to 5-pounds on a drone that weighs less than 55-pounds. The vehicles themselves would travel under the 400 feet mark and will utilize “sense and avoid” technology in order to bypass any collisions.
The program is currently being tested via Prime Air development centres in the United Kingdom, United States, and Israel with no official word on when it will be available as a delivery option.
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