Amazon has unveiled its secret research
project which it claims will be the future of
home delivery - packages delivered by drones.
The Internet shopping giant’s chief executive
Jeff Bezos says that he wants to use
octocoptors to replace postmen and cut
delivery times to just 30 minutes.
Customers would have their order dropped
onto their front lawn by the machine which
would fly through the air from a nearby
warehouse with it clasped in a metal grabber.
Coming in for landing: Amazon have
announced plans to roll out a drone
delivery service in 'four to five years' that
could allow customers to receive packages
within 30 minutes of placing an order
Amazon say they have been working on
their special 'drones' in a secret research
lab in Seattle
It is not clear if the drones are a PR stunt or
a serious proposition, but speaking to US TV
network CBS, Bezos said: ‘I know this looks
like science fiction. It’s not.’
Bezos’ claims raise the prospect of a future
where drones whiz across the sky all the time
ferrying post around - and perhaps one day
even letters too.
In the interview Bezos said that the drones
would be able to carry goods up to five
pounds in weight, which covers 86 per cent of
the items that the company delivers.
Bezos said that he wants to launch the
‘Amazon Prime Air’ service within four to five
years, though that will almost certainly be in
the US before anywhere else.
He said: ‘These generations of vehicles, it
could be a ten-mile radius from a fulfillment
(delivery) center.
‘So, in urban areas, you could actually cover
very significant portions of the population.
‘And so, it won’t work for everything; you
know, we’re not gonna deliver kayaks or table
saws this way. These are electric motors, so
this is all electric; it’s very green, it’s better
than driving trucks around. This is all an R&D
project’.
Bezos said that the octocoptors would be
autonomous so would not need a pilot to
guide them.
Instead they would use GPS tracking to find
their way to and from the address.
Bezos said: The hard part here is putting in all
the redundancy, all the reliability, all the
systems you need to say: ‘Look, this thing
can’t land on somebody’s head while they’re
walking around their neighborhood’.
Getting approval from the US Federal Aviation
Authority was going to be the ‘hardest thing’,
Bezos said, but he thinks that it ‘will happen’.
WHAT IS AN OCTOCOPTER?
An octocopter is a type of rotorcraft - or
drone - that is powered by eight rotor
helicopter blade. Each of the arms are
operated by their own motor. For this reason
they are designed and used to life 'heavy'
objects. It is also makes them less likely to
breakdown if there is a problem with one of
the blades. Amazon say their self-made
octocopters will be able to carry packages
weighing up to five pounds, which accounts
for about 86 per cent of the items the
company delivers.
Bezos has long been considered a retail
visionary and is credited with turning Amazon
from an online book retailer into the
$61billion (£37billion) a year juggernaut that
it is today.
No technical details were released of the
octocoptors but they have eight blades, hence
the name octocoptor, in case one set breaks
so it can stay in the air.
Amazon’s version has an orange top with the
company’s logo on it.
Similar devices are made out of lightweight
carbon fibre material, can travel six metres a
second and cost around £9,000 ($14,000)
though the Amazon prototypes are probably a
lot more.
Drones have caused controversy in the US as
they have been used by law enforcement
across the country including Alameda County
in California where County Sheriff Gregory
Ahern bought one and gave a public
demonstration of its uses.
Earlier this year the FAA published a
document which paves the way for police,
businesses and hobbyists to use drones on a
wide scale by 2015.It is thought that within
five years 7,500 drones could be in use across
the US if the rules changes go ahead.
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