A few weeks ago, before the holiday season, Amazon delivered customers by drone for the first time. Called Amazon Prime Air, the possibility of receiving a package by means of a flying machine – and not from the hands of a delivery person – has recently been offered by the e-commerce leader in two small towns in the United States. , Lockeford in California and College Station in Texas, reported Ars Technica website and a local channel. This deployment is part of an offensive by Amazon on drone delivery. An arduous and old challenge, but for the past few weeks the company has once again been making an ambitious statement.
In concrete terms, Prime Air deliveries are guaranteed “in less than an hour” by a hexagonal drone with six propellers, electric and unmanned, which weighs 35 kilos and flies between 60 and 120 meters of altitude. The customer designates a place of deposit “It can be anywhere on his property, such as in his garden or parking lot, or in another public place, such as a building courtyard or a nearby park”, explains Calsee Hendrickson, Prime Air’s senior manager of technology and production. The drone remains hovering without landing then releases the package.
“The customer is not obliged to be present”adds M.me Hendrickson. The machine can deliver parcels up to 2.5 kilos, i.e. “85% of inventory” from Amazon, and, for now, “a few thousand” articles, among the most ordered, are eligible.
Distant goals
“Amazon Prime Air targets 500 million annual drone deliveries for tens of millions of customers by 2030”, including in big cities like Boston, Atlanta or Seattle, the company announced on November 10 during a visit to an innovation laboratory near Boston, where Ms.me Hendrickson. “Drones are the most efficient way to serve customers in less than an hour and, eventually, thirty minutes”, believes Amazon.
The company is said to have already spent nearly $2 billion and employed up to 1,000 people on this project
This display of proactive – but distant – objectives contrasts with the difficulties encountered so far in using these new types of aircraft in e-commerce. Delivery by drone indeed resembles a sea serpent. As early as 2013, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, reveals in the magazine 60 Minutes a first in-house prototype, hoping for a service “within four or five years”. From 2016, tests are carried out in the United Kingdom and widely reported in the press. In 2019, an Amazon executive predicts an opening ” in some months “.
You have 51.92% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.