
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Further Reading Amazon releases Prime Air teaser video starring Jeremy Clarkson Amazon has begun a commercial trial of its Prime Air autonomous drone delivery service, beginning with a single fulfilment centre in Cambridge, England. The first delivery, which took place on December 7, took just 13 minutes from the customer placing an order. There's a promotional video of the first Prime Air delivery embedded below. 
 
 To begin with, just two Amazon customers have been invited into the Prime Air trial, and they both live near the fulfilment centre. The customers can request drone delivery seven days a week, but only during daylight hours, and the weather has to be within certain parameters. The first Prime Air delivery, in case you were wondering, was an Amazon Fire TV stick and a bag of popcorn. 
 
 If the video accurately shows the process, a Prime Air delivery currently goes something like this: 
 
 The customer places an order The order is packed at the Amazon warehouse by a human The box is placed on a conveyor belt and picked up by the drone The drone glides down a track until it's outside The drone takes off and flies autonomously (with GPS) to the customer's location The drone spots a special marker on the ground in a field The drone lands on the marker and leaves the package behind The happy customer treks out to the field and picks up the package. 
 
 Amazon says it will eventually expand the trial to a few dozen, and then a few hundred shoppers who live within range of the Cambridge warehouse. As far as we're aware, the current stock of battery-powered Prime Air drones (which look quite different from last year's drones) still have a maximum capacity of 5 pounds (2.3kg). 
 
 Prime Air was originally announced way back in December 2013. At some point, possibly because there are fewer firearms in the UK, primary development of Prime Air appears to have shifted to Amazon's research centre in Cambridge, England. Late in 2015 the company released a teaser video starring Jeremy Clarkson, and in October this year Amazon let a few journalists peek inside the Cambridge drone lab. 
 
 Further Reading Hacking the drone code: UK needs decisive UAV policy On the regulatory side of things, Amazon has struck a deal with the Civil Aviation Authority in the UK to operate multiple drones beyond line of sight. No such deal has yet been struck in the US, though the FAA did recently allow another company to operate drones beyond line of sight, perhaps eventually paving the way for a Prime Air trial. 
 
 In both countries, some kind of air traffic control system for drones will probably be required before wide-scale autonomous deliveries are approved. 
 
 This post originated on Ars Technica UK ||||| 0:55 Close Drag 
 
 Rush orders just got a whole lot speedier. 
 
 Amazon on Wednesday said it has delivered its first Prime Air order, an important milestone after revealing its drones program three years ago. Last week, one of the company's drones dropped off an Amazon Fire TV and bag of popcorn in the backyard of a customer near Cambridge, England -- 13 minutes after the customer ordered it online. 
 
 Enlarge Image Amazon 
 
 Jeff Bezos, Amazon's CEO, touted the achievement on Twitter. 
 
 Delivery drones could become Amazon's next step in getting us what we need faster and with lower shipping costs. With Amazon hoping to roll them out worldwide, these vehicles have the potential to significantly change the way we shop. Walmart, UPS and Google parent Alphabet are also testing out delivery drones. For instance, Alphabet started a pilot program that delivers Chipotle burritos on the campus of Virginia Tech. 
 
 Yet these unmanned aircraft still need to clear extensive regulatory and safety hurdles before they reach the mainstream -- if they ever do. In the US, the Federal Aviation Administration has, for now, essentially banned delivery drones, since these vehicles need to be in the line of sight of an operator to fly legally. More regulations around drones are still being developed, but that could take years. 
 
 The UK program, still in a private beta, aims to drop off a package in 30 minutes or less after you place an order. Customers can order from thousands of items seven days a week during daylight hours, weather permitting. 
 
 The project has started with just two customers in the UK, but Amazon plans to expand participation to dozens of customers living several miles from its UK facility and hopes to eventually expand to hundreds more. At least for the private test phase, these customers won't have to pay any additional shipping costs; no word on whether that could change as the program grows. 
 
 The autonomous drones can carry packages up to five pounds, and they're guided by GPS. Obviously, the service will only be available for certain items. 
 
 Amazon's pilot program comes after the company in July got permission from the UK government to test delivery drones there. It was approved to evaluate drones in three main areas: flights beyond line of sight in rural and suburban areas; tests of sense-and-avoidance systems; and operations by one person of multiple drones. ||||| Amazon has successfully delivered its first package with a drone. 
 
 Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos tweeted on Wednesday that Amazon last week successfully completed its first drone delivery as part of its Prime Air initiative. The package was delivered to a customer in the Cambridge area of England on Dec. 7, and made it to the person’s house just 13 minutes after the order was placed. 
 
 In a video describing the trial, Amazon (AMZN) says that trial customers around Cambridge are able to choose from “thousands of items” from its online store that are in stock at a Prime Air fulfillment center near their homes. Amazon employees place the ordered products into a Prime Air box and place it inside the drone. The electric drone then moves across a track outside the fulfillment center, and once all safety checks are completed by a person, they take off. According to Amazon, the drones take off, deliver products, and return on their own with no human involvement. 
 
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 On the trip, the drones, using GPS to find their way, fly at no higher than 400 feet. Amazon is promising drone delivery within 30 minutes. 
 
 The idea for drone delivery through Prime Air was announced by Bezos in 2013. Since then, Amazon has been working with regulators to start testing the service, which could eventually see drones replace delivery services from traditional logistics companies. 
 
 Amazon relies heavily on the likes of UPS and FedEx to deliver packages to customers. And in recent years, Amazon has shown some interest in reducing its reliance on third-party companies to deliver packages. The move could ultimately save Amazon on shipping costs. 
 
 There are some limitations to a rapid Prime Air rollout. For one, most regulators around the world still have not yet finalized safety regulations on drones that would ultimately impact how Amazon could operate its service. And since drones can only travel so far, Amazon will need to establish strategically placed logistics buildings around the world to accommodate orders. Moreover, Prime Air drones can currently only carry packages of five pounds or less, leaving many of the items Amazon sells unable to be shipped by the method. 
 
 For more about Amazon, watch: 
 
 Still, a successful first delivery is a step in the right direction for Amazon, and the company says it plans to expand the trial in the coming months. For now, it’s working with just two customers as part of the trial, but plans to expand the number to “dozens of customers” who live within an unidentified number of miles from its Prime Air facility. Once that trial is complete, Amazon hopes to add hundreds more customers to the trial. ||||| Is this science fiction or is this real? 
 
 It looks like science fiction, but it's real. One day, seeing Prime Air vehicles will be as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road. 
 
 How will it work? 
 
 Amazon Prime Air is a service that will deliver packages up to five pounds in 30 minutes or less using small drones. 
 
 How are you going to ensure safety? 
 
 Safety is our top priority. Our vehicles will be built with multiple redundancies, as well as sophisticated “sense and avoid” technology. Additionally, through our testing, we will gather data to continue improving the safety and reliability of our systems and operations. 
 
 When will I be able to choose Prime Air as a delivery option? 
 
 We will deploy when and where we have the regulatory support needed to safely realize our vision. We’re excited about this technology and one day using it to deliver packages to customers around the world in 30 minutes or less. ||||| Amazon today announced that it has started a small private drone delivery trial in the UK. It’s currently working with only two shoppers who can now order their goods by drone. Over time, Amazon plans to expand this trial to a few dozen — and later to hundreds — of shoppers who live within a few miles of its first Prime Air fulfillment center around Cambridge in the UK. 
 
 The first delivery was on December 7th and didn’t fly too far, but this is still a major step for Prime Air, which looked like little more than an early April Fools’ joke when Amazon first announced this project. The drones are loaded in a fulfillment center and then rolls out of the hall on rails, after which they take off. The full flight happens autonomously, including the landing, and the idea is to ensure that all deliveries arrive within 30 minutes. 
 
 The first product the drone delivered was an Amazon Fire TV and a bag of popcorn. The process took 13 minutes from the time the customer entered the order to the time the package was delivered. The drones will be able to carry packages up to five pounds. 
 
 Amazon tells us that the current batch of customers will be able to order seven days a week, but only during daylight hours and when the weather is okay to fly. 
 
 Judging by the video Amazon posted today, the customer will have to roll out a small mat in the backyard that the drone can then see and land on. 
 
 The drone Amazon is using for these trials is different from the ones it previously showed. It’s a more traditional quadcopter design as opposed to the hybrid plane/quadcopter it showed off last year. That likely means it doesn’t have the full range Amazon is hoping for in the long run, but it’s also a tried and tested design. Amazon also always said that it was working on various types of drones. 
 
 Prime Air has been testing its drones in various locations around the world and Amazon also recently set up a lab in Austria where dozens of computer scientists are working on computer vision-based sense-and-avoid technologies. 
 
 Traditionally, Prime Air always made a big splash around the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. This started in 2013 with the (in)famous 60 Minutes piece on CBS that catapulted the idea of routine deliveries by drones into the mainstream. Last year, it debuted the latest hybrid model of its drones with the help of Top Gear/Grand Tour star Jeremy Clarkson. This year, however, things around Prime Air remained quiet over Thanksgiving (my guess is that Amazon didn’t want to take attention away from the launch of the Grand Tour). 
 
 With less than a handful of beta testers, this is obviously a very small test for the time being, but it does show how serious Amazon is about this project and it’ll likely only be a few months before far more people around Cambridge will be able to order their tea and biscuits by Prime Air. Don’t expect to see a similar service in the U.S. anytime soon, though. Amazon is able to do this in the UK because it received permission there to operate beyond line-of-sight flights last July. To do so, its drones had to pass extensive safety tests. It’ll also be a while before Amazon will be able to expand this test beyond the rural environment it is working in now. Urban drone deliveries are far more difficult than flying to large backyards in the countryside. That, too, though is a problem the company is current trying to solve.
– Amazon has made its first delivery by drone. The inaugural "Amazon Prime Air" delivery took place last week, but was just reported by the company Wednesday. The long-anticipated air delivery took just 13 minutes, CNET reports. Amazon's goal for Prime Air is for deliveries to take 30 minutes or less. A customer in England ordered an Amazon Fire TV stick and a bag of popcorn, and a GPS-guided drone dropped it off in his backyard. TechCrunch calls it "a major step for Prime Air, which looked like little more than an early April Fools’ joke when Amazon first announced" it. The private UK beta program, which allows for deliveries of certain items during daylight hours as long as weather permits, is so far serving just two customers, but will eventually expand to dozens and then hundreds more in the Cambridge area, Ars Technica reports. In the US, however, drone deliveries are essentially banned for now, since FAA regulations require a drone operator to be able to see the drone while it's flying. As Fortune points out, there are other hurdles, including the fact that drones can so far carry packages weighing only up to five pounds, and can only deliver to customers within a relatively small area around a fulfillment center.