Amazon has been talking up its drone delivery service, Amazon Prime Air, for literally years now. We were skeptical when they started, and remain so, but credit where it’s due — Amazon pulled it off for the first time last week, and in thirteen minutes.
The delivery was in Cambridge, England, and rather elaborately staged, as you can see by the above video. But the customer ordered an Amazon device, by total coincidence, and hey, it was there well under the half-an-hour goal. That said, though, Amazon’s glossing over a few things worth noting. First of all, Cambridge, England, is pretty flat and pretty rural, making it easy for a drone to drop things off. Trying that in, say, Los Angeles, has a few kinks that will need to be ironed out. Similarly, notice this is limited to small things like bags of dog treats and Amazon Fire TVs; we’re a long way away from shipping an actual TV by drone.
On the other hand, a cheap electric drone is a greener, faster solution than sticking the region’s sole mailman with the job of hauling every Amazon order, and even if this only means people in rural areas get faster package service, that’s still not a bad thing. But while this successful trial proves it’ll be possible, don’t expect to see drones replacing that guy in an Amazon van any time soon.
(Via Mashable)