Compared to a few years ago, shipping times from online retailers have improved leaps and bounds, and safe to say Amazon is probably leading the pack. The company had recently announced Sunday deliveries which is a great idea for those who love to shop online, but hate having to wait for the weekdays to roll by before they receive their purchases. Well if you thought that was pretty cool, prepare to be amazed as Amazon has unveiled their plans for the future which involves delivery drones which will be part of Amazon’s “Prime Air” program.
These drones are able to carry packages up to five pounds and will be able to deliver them to a ten mile radius from Amazon’s fulfillment center, which means that customers should be able to receive their purchases in around 30 minutes. According to Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos, 86% of Amazon’s packages are under 5 pounds, which means that the majority of purchases from Amazon already qualify to be shipped via Prime Air.
Unfortunately if you were hoping that the Amazon Prime Air program will be making its debut anytime soon, you’d be out of luck. Bezos stated that it might be four to five y ears away from it being made a reality, simply because Amazon and the FAA need to get together and work out the legality concerning the use of drones to make deliveries, but at the same time expressed his confidence by saying, “It will work, and it will happen, and it’s going to be a lot of fun.” It sounds like a pretty awesome idea and one we’re sure many would love to see made a reality. If you’d like to learn more about Amazon Prime Air, hit up Amazon’s website or check out the video above for the details!
Earlier this year, Andreas Raptopoulos delivered a Ted Talk on that exact topic, and laid out the reasons why drone delivery made sense for specific payloads because of the low-cost, speed and convenience. According to him, a network of drones would work like the Internet, but for physical goods. He means that packets will go through various HUB locations before they reach their destination. Fundamentally, this would be a very resilient way to transit small packets. Admittedly, Raptopoulos is delivering medical supplies in low-income and low-infrastructure countries, while Amazon will deliver expensive small gadgets to impatient customers – same technology, two very different goals.