Amazon's Prime Air service just recently made a successful drone delivery in Palm Springs, and it's said to be the company's first US delivery.
During Amazon's MARS 2017 conference which was recently held in California, the company decided to unveil the Prime Air drone delivery to the public. The drone successfully flew over the lawn area of the resort and delivered a package which contained a bottle of sunscreen, before it ended-up flying away.
These drones have already proven to be successful when drone delivery tests were conducted in England, but this is said to be the first time that the public in the US has been able to see the drone delivery program in action. Although, the company has previously received the green light from the government in order to conduct tests; they were just that.
Amazon says that their drones will be able to deliver packages within 30 mins by using drones that can fly up to 50 mph.
We might even be able to see this drone delivery service for Amazon finally rolled-out by the end of this year. But they still continue to struggle over the regulatory hurdles in various jurisdictions, in order to get their drones into the sky.
One of their competitors, UPS, is also well on its way to conducting their own drone deliveries. And they have already successfully tested their drone delivery capability. Their drones are able to fly about 30 minutes at a time and are claimed to be able to carry up to 10lbs at a time.
As drones have continued to become popular with many consumers around the world, there have also been many complaints launched against these devices. From concerned residents who feel like they are being spied on, to pilots who see the toys as a hazard which they say frequently gets into their flight path.
Despite concerns from some, popularity and demand continues to grow for drones in many areas around the world and commercial use for drones is expected to increase 10x by the year 2021.
There is even a Domino's franchise in New Zealand that has been trying to test delivering its pizza's with drone delivery. They made the world's first successful pizza drone delivery back in 2016. Aside from delivering mail, it might not be very long before we start to see drone deliveries of food and other items become commonplace.
Domino's says that they already have drone delivery trials in a number of other markets: Japan, Germany, The Netherlands, France, Australia, and Belgium.
Pics:
Matzav
BCNN1
TheSun
Sources:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4335588/Watch-Amazon-delivery-drone-make-debut-drop-US.html
http://www.geekwire.com/2017/amazon-prime-air-delivery-drone-mars/
https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2017-03-21/us-commercial-drone-use-to-expand-tenfold-by-2021-government-agency
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2017-dominos-pizza-empire/
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-25/kiwis-claim-another-world-first-with-pizza-delivery-by-drone
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/16/dominos-has-delivered-the-worlds-first-ever-pizza-by-drone-to-a-new-zealand-couple.html
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2194855/dominos-makes-first-delivery-by-drone-in-new-zealand-as-stunt-is-hailed-as-one-giant-leap-for-pizza/
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