Will Amazon take off with drone deliveries?
Amazon unveiled the next generation drone for its Prime Aire delivery service. But since it began testing in 2013, the project has suffered major setbacks.
Amazon has developed a new drone for urban deliveries.
Nearly a decade after Jeff Bezos first announced Prime Air drone delivery, Amazon says it's finally ready to start making packages fly.
A few weeks ago, the tech giant unveiled a smaller, quieter drone that will be ready in 2024 and could make regular deliveries to major cities by the end of the decade.
Consumers want to receive their purchases quickly and, according to the vision of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, they could receive them in just 30 minutes while helping the environment by taking CO2-emitting trucks off the road. But a number of technical and regulatory hurdles stand in the way, which is why drone deliveries in the US are progressing slowly, reports Axios .
THE FEATURES OF THE NEW AMAZON DRONE
In service from 2024, this drone will be lighter and smaller than the MK27-2, which will make the first deliveries to Lockeford and College Station. “The MK30's increased range, higher temperature resistance, safety features and its new ability to fly in light rain will allow customers to more frequently choose drone delivery,” according to the company.
The new drone will therefore be less intrusive than the model that Amazon is using in its Prime Air service, which will begin in two markets: Lockeford, California and College Station, Texas, in the coming weeks.
The drone can fly 12 kilometers round-trip and is fully autonomous. But has the little unmanned aircraft needs ample free space underneath it to drop the box.
“If the drone encounters another aircraft while it is flying, it will fly around that other aircraft. If, when it arrives at the delivery location, your dog runs under the drone, we will not deliver the package,” Calsee Hendrickson, who leads product and program management for the Prime Air drone program, told CNBC .
THE GOAL OF THE TECH COLOSSUS
By the end of the decade, the company's goal is to deliver 500 million packages a year by drone in cities, Amazon Prime Air vice president David Carbon told reporters.
According to the company, its electric drones can deliver orders under 2.5 kilos to customers in less than an hour of purchase. Amazon says thousands of items are eligible for drone delivery, a small percentage of the vast assortment available on its marketplace.
BECAUSE IT HAS NOT TAKEN OFF YET
Amazon has pursued drone delivery for nearly a decade, but the program has faced delays and internal problems, Bloomberg reported earlier this year.
Prime Air began testing in 2013, made a single drone delivery in 2016, and has suffered major setbacks since then.
The service reached a key milestone in August 2020 when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) gave Amazon approval to operate drones. "This certification is an important step forward for Prime Air and signifies the FAA's confidence in Amazon's safety and operational procedures for an autonomous drone delivery service that will one day deliver packages to our customers around the world," he told a statement. Bloomberg David Carbon, vice president of Amazon.
LATE THAN THE RIVAL WALMART
However, Amazon's service lags behind Walmart, which says it is expanding its DroneUp delivery network to 34 sites in six states, notes Axios . Other players, including Google-owned Zipline and Wing, have also begun drone deliveries for hospitals and retail partners like Walgreens.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/amazon-decollera-con-le-consegne-via-drone/ on Tue, 29 Nov 2022 06:52:10 +0000.