Amazon Lunches First Commercial Drone Delivery

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced via Twitter that the company delivered a package by a drone on December 7. It was the first commercial order from a customer in the UK Cambridgeshire.

The package with an Amazon Fire tablet and a bag of popcorn was delivered only 13 minutes after the order was placed by Prime Air drone. The reason that the delivery took place in Cambridgeshire and not in the US is because Amazon a few months ago opened a test center in Cambridge, the US aviation authority imposed too many restrictions when it comes to conducting field tests.

Customers served by the drone will extend to “a few dozen” in the coming months. The rules for autonomous flying drones are too strict, and fly over buildings and roads is another stumbling block.

The Amazon drones can carry packets to about 2.5 kg. For navigation it uses GPS. There is no need for the pilot to sit at the controls. For the delivery itself, the point is marked by a customer, for example, which is laid in the garden. A camera on the drone records that point and puts off the package. The range of the drone is around 3 kilometers (one way).

THE LAST MILE

Generally, drone delivery is seen as a godsend when it comes to the supply of hardly accessible locations. For emergency, it is logical to deploy drones. For delivering regular orders drones in the future may only be used to bridge the “last mile, ranging from the van to the customer. This last piece in the delivery chain is the most time-consuming and therefore costly.

DN

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