WASHINGTON: Want that Amazon order in just 30 minutes? Company CEO Jeff Bezos says he hopes to soon deploy an armada of mini-drones able to drop small packages at your doorstep.
The US online retail giant's revolutionary project still needs extra safety testing and federal approval, but Bezos believes that Amazon "Prime Air" would be up and running within four to five years.
"These are effectively drones but there's no reason that they can't be used as delivery vehicles," Bezos told CBS television's "60 Minutes" program late Sunday.
"I know this looks like science fiction. It's not," he said.
"We can do half-hour delivery . . . and we can carry objects, we think, up to five pounds (2.3 kilograms), which covers 86 percent of the items that we deliver."
A video posted on the company's website shows a prototype drone. The body of the device is about the size of a flat-scree monitor, and it is attached to eight small helicopter rotors and sits on four tall legs.
The claws under the belly of the "octopeter" then latch onto a standard sized plastic bucket that rolls down a conveyer belt at Amazon's fulfillment center. Inside the bucket is the order.
The drone lifts off and whizzes into the air like a giant mechanical insect to deliver the package just 30 minutes after clicking the "pay" button on Amazon.com. Then it buzzes back into the air and returns to base.
The mini-drones are powered by environmentally-friendly electric motors and can cover areas within a 10-mile (16-kilometer) radius of fulfillment centers, thus covering a significant portion of the population in urban areas.
The drones operate autonomously and follow the GPS coordinates they receive to drop the items off the target locations.
"It's very green, it's better than driving trucks around," said Bezos.
He also claims they are safe; the prototype has redundant motors that will keep it in the air and prevent it from crashing.
"The hard part here is putting in all the redundancy, all the reliability, all the systems you need to say, 'Look, this thing can't land on somebody's head while they're walking around their neighborhood,'" Bezos told CBS.
Amazon said the octocopters would be "ready to enter commercial operations as soon as the necessary regulations are in place," noting that the Federal Aviation Administration was hard at work hammering out rules for the use of unmanned aerial vehicles.
Amazon projected a more optimistic timeline than Bezos himself for the project to be activated, saying the FAA's rules could be in place as early as 2015, and that Amazon Prime Air would be ready at that time.
Bezos hinted that part of the motivation behind the mini-drones was to make sure Amazon remains on the cutting edge of the retail industry.
"Companies have short life spans... And Amazon will be disrupted one day," he said. "I would love for it to be after I'm dead."
If the plan succeeds other retailers like Wal Mart, or even the local pizza store, could also start home deliveries via drone.
Comments on Twitter about the program ranged from amazed to humorous.
"If this weren't on the CBS website, I would think this Amazon drone thing was an Onion article," wrote Iris Blasi, referring to the popular satirical tabloid.
COMMENTS (12)
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Where all the people who were gloating about the new off the shelf toy, sorry, pakistan's indigenous drones just a couple of days ago?
If it would be Pakistan, They would get stolen at first place, and if drone survives it, would have got a rocket launcher and even though if it survives that, it would become the victim of a stone throne through a 'Golail' in hand of an immature.
Imagine a drone delivering a cake to your house, and your neighbours looking at you through there roof tops and children gathered all around your house, to see the delivery of a cake :D Hahahaha Now imagine PTI and JI holding protests agains drone deliveries in KPK. :D Hahahhaha
2.3 kg is pretty good. But will it match the fuel efficiency of a delivery truck?
PTI "branch" in US has been notified. There is a plan being formulated to 'protest' this development by picketing the freeways leading into the city of Seattle where Amazon HQ is located.
Santa Claus already have a fleet in operation this christmas.FRom North pole to chimneys.
If the drones have the same success rate in Pakistan (93% hit their intented target with pin point accuracy without collateral damage), it will be a failure. Can you imagine 7% of the customers not getting their goods? Financial disaster....
Drones are God sent Ababeels to defeat the enemy. Love the drones !
@ guru Yes it was like they checking the delivering system by drones . And drones played exceptionally well in bombing pakistan . So it is easy job to deliver products.
Most probably Amazon man is talking about the future when taxis and transport vehicle shall float in air instead of using roads, in which case drones ill become superflous. The current technology does not allow the unmanned vehicle to defdlect from the civilin air traffic, hence can not be used in cities.
Rex Minor
Its freaking me out :( Lets just continue being old-school please!