Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos revealed a secret R&D project: “Octocopter” drones that will fly packages directly to your doorstep in 30 minutes. Bezos says requires more safety testing and FAA approvals, but he estimates that delivery-by-drone, called Amazon “Prime Air,” will be available to customers in as soon as 4-5 years.
Jeff Bezos is known for taking big bets in the world of innovation, and a video of how the service will work has already been posted to YouTube, showing the process of the package being taken from the warehouse floor and on to the front steps of the customer’s home. The idea is to have the drone deliver orders roughly 30 minutes after the customer hits the “buy” button on Amazon.com.
"I know this looks like science fiction. It's not," Bezos told CBS television's "60 Minutes" program.
"We can do half-hour delivery... and we can carry objects, we think, up to five pounds (2.3 kilograms), which covers 86 percent of the items that we deliver."
The mini-drones are powered by electric motors and could cover areas within a 10-mile (16-kilometer) radius of fulfillment centers, thus covering a significant portion of the population in urban areas. They operate autonomously and drop the items at the target locations thanks to GPS coordinates transmitted to them.
"It’s very green, it’s better than driving trucks around," said Bezos.
The plan is in its initial stages right now, and Bezos says that there are some regulatory issues to be worked out, we’re guessing mostly along the lines of how to make sure a drone doesn’t drop package onto unwary pedestrians. Bezos appears optimistic though, and believes that the near future will see armadas or drones zipping around cities.
"Companies have short life spans... And Amazon will be disrupted one day," he said.
"I would love for it to be after I’m dead."
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