SAN FRANCISCO (National Times) – Amazon plans to start flying some purchases to customers later this year, the e-commerce giant said Monday, announcing drone delivery that will debut in a California town.<\/p>\n
Retail rival Walmart already offers drone delivery and in May announced it is dramatically ramping up the service, expanding to six states by year-end with the potential to drop off one million packages annually.<\/p>\n
Amazon customers in the Northern California town of Lockeford will be able to sign up for free delivery by “Prime Air” drones, the company said in a post.<\/p>\n
“Air-eligible” items ordered at the retailer\u2019s website will be packed into drones that will fly to the delivery addresses, deposit packages outside from safe heights, then fly away, according to Amazon.<\/p>\n
The drones can carry loads as heavy as five pounds (2.2 kilograms) in packages about the size of a large shoe box, an Amazon spokesperson told AFP.<\/p>\n
Items approved for drone delivery will include household products, beauty items, office supplies and tech gear, the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
Amazon said it has created a sophisticated system to enable its drones to detect and avoid aircraft, people, pets and other obstacles.<\/p>\n
“We designed our sense-and-avoid system for two main scenarios: to be safe when in transit, and to be safe when approaching the ground,” the company said.<\/p>\n
Feedback from the operations in California will be used to expand the drone service.<\/p>\n
A variety of companies ranging from new startups to major tech firms such as Google-parent Alphabet are working on autonomous drone delivery.<\/p>\n
Alphabet\u2019s project Wing completed its first real-world drone deliveries in 2014 in rural Australia where they successfully transported first-aid supplies, candy bars, dog treats, and water to farmers, according to the company\u2019s website.<\/p>\n
Two years after that, Wing drones were used to deliver burritos to students at a university in Virginia.<\/p>\n
“The logistics industry is abuzz with all-things drones,” the Amazon team said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SAN FRANCISCO (National Times) – Amazon plans to start flying some purchases to customers later this year, the e-commerce giant said Monday, announcing drone delivery that will debut in a California town. Retail rival Walmart already offers drone delivery and in May announced it is dramatically ramping up the service, expanding to six states by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n