Drones can cover over 15 miles, fly over 55 mph.
By Sreejith Vallikunnu
The online retail giant Amazon has unveiled the functioning of its new prototype of drone delivery system called ‘Prime Air’, in a video launched on Sunday.
The video, narrated by television show host Jeremy Clarkson, imagines a family in the “not too distant future” receiving replacement soccer shoes via a drone. It shows the drone rising up from an Amazon warehouse approaching its targeted landing spot, dropping the package, then taking off again, presumably to return where it came from.
Amazon had announced the prototype technology two years back, but according to the world’s largest online retailer; the newly designed drone can cover over 15 miles and fly over 55 mph.
In the video, Clarkson says Amazon is working on a family of drones that can be used for different purposes. The vehicles will be built with multiple redundancies, as well as sophisticated “sense and avoid” technology.
“We’re excited about Prime Air — 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. Prime Air has great potential to enhance the services we already provide to millions of customers by providing rapid parcel delivery that will also increase the overall safety and efficiency of the transportation system. Putting Prime Air into service will take some time, but we will deploy when we have the regulatory support needed to realize our vision,” Amazon said in a statement.
Amazon did not reveal when it will flag off its drone delivery service, but the company added that “Safety is our top priority” and it will not launch Prime Air until able to demonstrate safe operations.
“We believe the airspace is safest when small drones are separated from most manned aircraft traffic, and where airspace access is determined by capabilities,” it said.
Currently, the company’s Prime Air development centres are in the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel. They are also testing the vehicles in multiple international locations.
The company first spoke about its plans for the unmanned delivery drones in December 2013.
“I know this looks like science fiction. It’s not,” Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said on “60 Minutes.”
In India, in 2014, Mumbai-based Francesco’s Pizzeria successfully used a drone to deliver a pizza. The flight, which was only a test, took the pizza from the pizzeria to a local customer’s residence, less than one mile away.
The security issues of drones buzzing around is something that can’t be ignored, though.
The Federal Aviation Administration will likely have to weigh in on whether or not the drones pose a potential risk to air travel, and low-flying aircraft like helicopters and private Cessna-type planes will be affected. In fact, the FAA has already said that commercial unmanned flights within US airspace are a strict no-no, but that could always change between now and 2015.