Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), the online retail giant, is known for innovation, and this time the company’s CEO Jeff Bezos has revealed that the company is experimenting with delivering packages via drones. The best part is that the shipment is delivered in under 30 minutes. Amazon has named this delivery system “Prime Air”, and it can deliver packages weighing up to 5 pounds. This was something that the company has been working on for a long time with its R&D lab.
Details and timeline of Amazon’s Prime Air
So how does this work? A drone sits at the end of a conveyer belt waiting to pick up the package. Once a package arrives, it grabs it and then the drone can carry up to 10 miles from Amazon’s fulfillment center. Once the destination is reached, the drone releases the package.
Jeff Bezos revealed this interesting detail on the 60 Minutes program speaking to CBS host Charlie Rose. He says that the drones can deliver items “up to five pounds, which covers 86 percent of the items that we deliver.”
During his talk, Bezos remembers how 18 years ago he’d drive to the post office to deliver packages himself, and how he dreamed of owning a forklift. He notes that the company is approximately four or five years away from using drones to deliver packages directly to your house. The company will need to work with the FAA to make sure its Prime Air program runs as expected.
Prime Air to put even more pressure on brick and mortar
This futuristic octocopter seems be Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s next big thing, and what’s exciting is the half hour delivery time. If Amazon can really deliver items within such a time, then it can give those brick and mortar stores some serious competition, because many people don’t like to wait for days to get their hands on it, and that’s why they purchase it from stores instead of buying it online. With Prime Air program, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) seems to be changing the game.
