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Amazon flying fast forward with drone service strategy

Regulatory challenges, safety hurdles and increasing competition aren't stalling Amazon's plans to be one of the first, if not the first, drone service delivery provider in flight.

Courtesy of Amazon

January 20, 2016

While federal regulatory scrutiny and oversight has barely just begun when it comes to personal and commercial drone use and service Amazon clearly believes drone service day is coming and coming soon.

"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," states Amazon on a website describing its future Prime Air service that promises to deliver packages, weighing a maximum of five pounds, to consumers in a half hour or less.

The global etailer is testing various vehicle designs and delivery approaches to determine which drone works best in different environments and said it has built over a dozen prototypes at development centers in the U.S. and abroad, including Israel. It is also testing vehicles in several international locations.

"Safety is our top priority. Our vehicles will be built with multiple redundancies, as well as sophisticated' 'sense and avoid' technology. We will not launch Prime Air until we are able to demonstrate safe operations," states Amazon.

In an interview with David Pogue, at Yahoo! Tech, Paul Misener, Amazon’s VP for global public policy, relates the goals for drone development include a range over 10 miles and handling up to five pounds (as the vast majority of products Amazon consumers order at one time don’t weigh over five pounds). He told Pogue no pricing schema is yet in the works.

"We want to make the deliveries. And we believe that these Prime Air drones will be as normal as seeing a delivery truck driving down the street someday. So the novelty will wear off," said Misener, stating the drones will soon be as normal as watching a delivery truck in operation.

While drones may prove more cost effective then current shipping systems that's not a business goal, claimed Misener.

"It's really to fulfill a need that we believe our customers have. Wouldn't it be so much better if you could just go online from Amazon and order it, have it delivered in 30 minutes?" he tells Pogue.

In regard to the challenges likely to come with regulatory action and oversight Misener said such challenges won't stall development or goal achievements. The U.S. doesn't necessarily have to be the first country to have drone delivery service.

As various news reports note, Amazon is certainly not alone in the race to build and deploy drone delivery service. Also building drones is Google's parent entity, Alphabet.