Amazon Prime Air

Amazon Prime Air
Owner Amazon.com, Inc.
Introduced 2016 (2016)

Amazon Prime Air is a conceptual drone-based delivery system currently in development by Amazon.

History

Concept

On December 1, 2013, Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos revealed plans for Amazon Prime Air in an interview on 60 Minutes. Amazon Prime Air is planned to use multirotor Miniature Unmanned Air Vehicle (Miniature UAV) technology to autonomously fly individual packages to customers within 30 minutes of ordering.[1] To qualify for 30 minute delivery, the order must be less than 5 pounds (2.25 kg), must be small enough to fit in the cargo box that the craft will carry, and must have a delivery location within a 10-mile (16 km) radius of a participating Amazon order fulfillment center.[1]

United States regulations and testing under waiver program

In the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, Congress issued the Federal Aviation Administration a deadline of September 30, 2015 to accomplish a "safe integration of civil unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace system."[2] In August 2016 commercial use of UAV technology was legalized by the United States Congress.[3]

In March 2015, the FAA granted Amazon permission to begin U.S. testing of a prototype under a waiver to the then regulations. Amazon reported that the vehicle cleared for use was obsolete. In April 2015, the FAA allowed Amazon to begin testing current models. In the interim, Amazon had begun testing at a Canadian site close to the United States border.[4]

Current U.S. regulations required drones fly no higher than 400 ft (122 m), no faster than 100 mph (161 km/h), and remain within the pilot's line of sight. Amazon has stated it intends to move towards operating above 200 ft (61 m) and beneath 500 ft (152 m), with 500 ft. Amazon has stated it plans to fly drones weighing an up to 55 lb (25 kg) within a 10 mi (16 km) radius of its warehouses, at speeds of up to 50 mph (80.5 km/h) with packages weighing up to 5 lb (2.26 kg) in tow.[4]

Delivery deployment development

Amazon has patented a beehive-like structure to house delivery drones in cities, allowing Amazon to move from large single-story warehouses that temporarily store packages before they are shipped.[5]

Fulfillment centres designed to accommodate drone deliveries and operations within a certain radius, are currently required. This was announced in a video released by Amazon.[6] On December 15, 2016, Amazon began its first publicly available trial of Amazon Prime Air to those within several miles of Amazon's depot in Cambridge, England.

First deliveries

On December 7, 2016, Amazon successfully delivered a Prime Air parcel to Cambridge, England. Amazon had built a Prime Air fulfillment center in the Cambridge area. Amazon posted a video on their official YouTube channel, on December 14, 2016 of the delivery.[6]

Internet connection and information storage

Amazon Prime Air drones will be connected to the internet to allow for flight control management, and communication between drones.[7] It has been reported by Brookings that Amazon's data collection usage from drones has not been disclosed.[8] The Pittsburgh Journal of Technology Law and Policy, have reported proposed data collection from Amazon Prime Air drones as including; automated object detection, GPS surveillance, gigapixel cameras, and enhanced image resolution.[9]

Self Driving Cars

Autonomous vehicles also fall under the Prime Air division's responsibility. There is little news about this potential direction, which would seem to make great sense for Amazon, since the last mile of delivery is the most expensive, and human drivers are the primary cost; but there is little news about this since an article about an Amazon patent for reversible lanes.[10]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Amazon Unveils Futuristic Plan: Delivery by Drone". CBS News. 1 December 2013. Retrieved 6 May 2014.
  2. ↑ "FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012" (PDF). FAA.gov. 14 February 2012. Retrieved 6 May 2014.
  3. ↑ Chandran, Nyshka (29 August 2016). "FAA's new drone laws go into effect Monday, allowing US companies to innovate". CNBC.com. Retrieved 23 July 2017.
  4. 1 2 Lavars, Nick (April 12, 2015). "Amazon to begin testing new delivery drones in the US". Gizmag. Retrieved April 12, 2015.
  5. ↑ Sam Levin (26 June 2016). "Amazon patents beehive-like structure to house delivery drones in cities". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 July 2017.
  6. 1 2 amazon (2016-12-14), Amazon Prime Air’s First Customer Delivery, retrieved 2016-12-15
  7. ↑ Mac, Ryan (28 July 2015). "Amazon Proposes Drone Highway As It Readies For Flying Package Delivery". Forbes.
  8. ↑ Singer, Peter W. (8 March 2013). "The Predator Comes Home: A Primer on Domestic Drones, their Huge Business Opportunities, and their Deep Political, Moral, and Legal Challenges". Brookings.
  9. ↑ Schlag, Chris (30 May 2013). "The New Privacy Battle: How the Expanding Use of Drones Continues to Erode Our Concept of Privacy and Privacy Rights". Pittsburgh Journal of Technology Law and Policy. 13 (2). doi:10.5195/tlp.2013.123.
  10. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/18/amazon-self-driving-patent-autonomous-vehicle-plans-reversible-lanes
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