Amazon is inventing a delivery system with no human intervention, a Prime Air drone. The new technology was unveiled on the 60 Minute show by no less than CEO Jeff Bezos in an apparent attempt to lure more customers to the online store on Cyber Monday. The Prime Air is designed to pick up the item ordered at the Amazon warehouse and to fly it to the customer’s home, which should be within the range of 10 miles.
The drone can carry no more than 5 pounds – over 80% of orders are less than this figure. It is an octo-copter drone with eight rotors responsible for lifting the object high the in air. The company is waiting for the FAA to promulgate the governing rules for unmanned delivery drones before it makes full use of the Prime Air for its logistics, supply chain or delivery mechanism. It hopes to achieve the goal of using Prime Air by 2015 at the latest.
The company is planning to reduce the delivery time to 30 minutes as shown in one of its test flights. It’s unclear for now how the system works in the absence of instructions from the company but having seen how the drone performed, it will worth a wait for now.
Watch the video for more information: