Amazon Reveals What Its 'Prime Air' Delivery Drones Could Look Like
If and when Amazon's Prime Air delivery system launches, expect there to be more than one type of drone delivering packages to customers' doorsteps.
Over the weekend, the e-commerce giant released a new video showing a redesigned version of its delivery drone. The new prototype is sleeker than the original drone and was shown carrying packages in its fuselage. The previous version, revealed almost exactly two years ago, carried packages underneath its body instead of inside. Amazon first teased the public with its dream of using multirotor Miniature Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (otherwise known as drones) to deliver products in 2013.
It may sound like science fiction, but it's actually happening. "One day, seeing Prime Air vehicles will be as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road," Amazon says.
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The new Air Prime video shows a delivery drone being loaded with a small box from a conveyor line. It then takes off vertically, like a helicopter, and floats over a suburban neighborhood before spotting its target, hovering over the customer's yard, and lowering itself down onto a marked landing pad to deposit the package. All of this was accomplished in about 30 minutes.
According to Amazon, their delivery drones will carry packages weighing no more than 5 pounds and travel distances of at least 10 miles. They will fly no higher than 400 feet - high enough to avoid traffic-clogged roadways but not so high as to collide with other aircraft. The drones will use "sense and avoid" technology to avoid crashing into obstacles both in the air and on the ground.
Wired notes that though this may just be a big marketing ploy to get publicity on the biggest sales day of the year, people do, in fact, need these drones. Thanks in part to online retailers like Amazon, freight volume will increase by 45 percent within the next 30 years. There will be 29 billion tons of freight a year, and the roads and bridges through which this mass of products will be transported are in no shape to handle the load. Drone technology could be a feasible solution.
Amazon says that they are trying out various vehicle designs and delivery mechanisms to identify the best way of delivering packages in different environments. The company says: "We have more than a dozen prototypes that we've developed in our research and development labs. The look and characteristics of the vehicles will evolve over time."
The Internet-based retailer is currently working with the Federal Aviation Administration to make the drone delivery system a reality. "We will deploy when and where we have the regulatory support needed to safely realize our vision," Amazon said.
