For several years, Amazon has been slowly developing a system for delivering orders by drone to your home. It looks like it may finally be up and running soon. Now the company is testing unmanned deliveries in two U.S. locations.
On LinkedIn, David Carbon, vice president who heads Amazon’s Prime Air division, shared with followers that the company has made its first unmanned deliveries “from our new sites in Texas and California.“
Amazon officials confirmed to FOX 40 News that the deliveries are in Lockford, California, an unincorporated county about 40 miles south of Sacramento, and College Station, Texas, home to Texas A&M University.
In addition, in a post on LinkedIn, Carbon said, “these are cautious first steps that we will turn into giant leaps for our customers over the next few years.” And amazon representatives told FOX 40 News, “Our goal is to get our drones into the sky safely. We’re starting in these communities and will gradually expand delivery to more customers over time.“
The main problem so far, of course, is logistics. The carrying capacity of drones is much more limited than that of trucks, so only small and light parcels can be delivered. Also, the problem is that the drone flies up to the customer’s backyard. So, it is impossible to deliver parcels to most apartments and condominiums.
The company has been working on this area since at least 2013 when it was thought that the service would be “available to customers in as little as four or five years.” Amazon says the first such delivery was made in England on December 7, 2016. At the time, it was the first fully autonomous delivery without human pilots.
However, it is not yet clear whether Amazon will use drone delivery everywhere. Business Insider estimated that drone delivery cost Amazon about $484 per package earlier this year, and the company aims to lower that price to $63 per package by 2025. Also, in field tests, one drone crashed in Oregon and caused a bushfire, thankfully with no injuries or deaths.
