On Sunday, Dec. 1, Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and Chief Executive, introduced a new method of delivering packages that his company is working to apply in the near future. As he was being interviewed by Charlie Rose during a segment on CBS' "60 Minutes," the entrepreneur unveiled Amazon Prime Air, a service that delivers packages via autonomous drones. It consists of tiny helicopters or "octocopters," that will deliver five-pound-and-under packages to your door within 30 minutes, as long as you live within 10 miles of an Amazon distribution center.
But, how will this work? After you place your order, the package is pulled off the lines by the octocopter, and then using GPS it is directed to the delivery address. When it arrives it releases the package on the doorstep. Bezos said that because the octocopter has eight blades, if one broke the drone would still be able to safely drop off a package. In an 80-second clip, introducing the new delivery technology, a shopper buys an item on Amazon. The item is then placed into a plastic yellow Amazon container and picked up at the end of a conveyor belt by an Amazon drone, which takes off and soars over a field before dropping the package outside the shopper's doorstep.
However, there's a catch to it. "The hardest challenge in making this happen is demonstrating to the standards of the FAA that this is a safe thing to do. This is years of additional work at this point," Bezos said in the interview. "I know it can't be before 2015," he added. "Because that's the earliest we could get the rules from the FAA. My guess is that's probably a little optimistic. But could it be, you know, four, five years? I think so. It will work, and it will happen, and it's gonna be a lot of fun." Watch the video below and tell us what you think about this new development!
© 2024 Latin Times. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
