Internet sales giant set to end the year took off its air delivery program, Amazon Prime Air, and had accomplished it days before the bells rang. In Spain, drones are already capable of carrying out several deliveries such as deliver food on luxury yachtsbut the goals Amazon sets itself are more complex and it took years to make the first delivery.

Nearly a decade ago corporate America set this goal and there were many holes along the way. security issue, an accident during a test where the drone fell 48 meters Y hundreds of layoffs in mid 2021 in the Great Britain team they announced the end of the program.

Now Amazon has delivered the first orders by drone in California and Texas, setting a delivery time a maximum of one hour to bring the package to the customeras reported Ars Technica. Little by little, the company intends to expand its air services to more locations, as long as regulation of urban drone flights allows, in Europe it is not yet known when this will be implemented.

first delivery

Before Christmas, the company was already dropping packages from drones in the backyards of its customers in cities Lockeford, California, and College Station, Texas. Areas with few inhabitants; Lockeford, for example, is located 50 miles southeast of Sacramento and has only about 3,500 residents. For its part, College Station, in Texas, is a somewhat larger city 100 miles northwest of Houston.

Residents of both cities can register to participate in the program when they buy something through Amazon. As the company expands its scope of action to other regions, it will notify its customers in those other places so they can request drone delivery.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has granted Amazon Part 135 approval for delivering packages by drone in 2020. For now, Amazon Prime Air will only apply in these areas with maximum 50 air shipments per day operate in each sector, the area has been divided into four sectors.

How does PrimeAir work?

The customer receives an estimated delivery time and can view information on drone tracking to wait for the device in his garden. “The drone will fly to the specified delivery location, going down to the customer’s backyard and will hover at a safe height. It will then release the pack safely and climb back up to altitude,” explains the company.

Amazon’s current drone will take care of this, the MK27-2 model which flies autonomously and is programmed to avoid obstacles such as chimneys or telephone towers. You can bring a load anything more than 2 kilograms maximum. However, the company is already working on new models with improvements such as being able to make deliveries in the rain.

new model MK30x is lighter and generates 25% less noise. In addition, they are capable of landing in smaller yards and delivery is estimated to take less than an hour or even 30 minutes. This model will not be available until 2024.

The drone challenge that many companies are working on involves bidding urban safety, where regulations severely limit the access of these teams. But it is also evolving in technology to go further, faster and with more weight without the need for large equipment.

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