Amazon’s drone delivery plan in the wings
The futuristic delivery system – known as Amazon Prime Air – harnesses the rapidly developing technology of multirotor Miniature Unmanned Air Vehicle or drones, navigated by automatic global positioning systems to fly individual packages to customers’ doorsteps.
An Amazon spokeswoman told FoodManufacture.co.uk: “We are working with regulators and policy makers in many countries in order to make Prime Air a reality for our customers as soon as possible.”
‘It looks like science fiction’
In a comment on Amazon’s website, the retailer acknowledged: “It looks like science fiction, but it’s real. One day, seeing Prime Air vehicles will be as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road.”
Amazon pledged to deploy the system when and where it had the regulatory support to transform to operate drone delivery. “We’re excited about this technology and one day using it to deliver packages to customers around the world in 30 minutes or less,” said the firm.
But it was too early to tell what the new devices would look like because the firm was still testing many different vehicle components, designs and configurations, it added.
Testing was taking place at three Prime Air development centres in: the UK, US and Israel.
Last week a UK robotics specialist suggested the UK could benefit from the US’s apparent reluctance to approve the testing of drones.
‘Commercial growth’
Prime Air potential
“It looks like science fiction, but it's real. One day, seeing Prime Air vehicles will be as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road.”
“For commercial growth, it [US slowness to approve drone testing] probably does provide an opportunity because companies can do more [in the UK],” Dr Ravi Vaidyanathan, senior lecturer in robotics at Imperial College London told the BBC.
“So they can gauge more of the market and the likely impact.”
His comments followed an Amazon boss’s warning to a Senate committee on Aviation Operations, Safety and Security about the slowness of gaining testing permission in the US.
Amazon’s vice president for global public policy Paul Misener complained approval to conduct outdoor tests on a home-delivery drone prototype had taken more than six months to arrive. “We don’t test it anymore,” the BBC reported Misener as saying. “We’ve moved on to more advanced designs that we are already testing abroad.”
No other nation required Amazon to wait more than two or three months for testing approval, he added.
While Amazon delivers ambient food products in the UK, it is testing the delivery of fresh food in the US with a view to offering the service in countries worldwide.
Meanwhile, watch the Amazon video below to gain a sneak preview of how the firm plans to put the fast into the future delivery of fast-moving consumer goods.
