Amazon Tests Drones for Home Delivery
E-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc. is developing aerial drones that it said could deliver products directly to consumers’ homes within the next five years.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos revealed the unmanned aircraft project Dec. 1 on CBS program “60 Minutes.” The vehicles could deliver up to five pounds in a 10-mile radius of Amazon’s 96 warehouses within 30 minutes, Bezos said.
“It will work, and it will happen, and it’s gonna be a lot of fun,” he said, according to Bloomberg News.
The Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration would have to approve the use of drones, Bloomberg said. Congress has directed it to write regulations to allow such vehicles in United States airspace by 2015.
Drones are currently used to deliver textbooks in Australia, and an experiment using them in under way in China.
In addition to the faster time to deliver products, drones could deliver a supply chain with a smaller environmental impact, Bezos said. “It’s very green,” he said, according to Bloomberg. “It’s better than driving trucks around.”
In November, Amazon teamed up with the U.S. Postal Service to deliver packages on Sundays.
