Amazon Completes First Drone Deliveries
- By CDOTrends editors
- January 17, 2023
E-commerce giant Amazon has completed its first drone deliveries, with small packages of up to 2.2kg delivered to homes in Texas and California.
Through its Prime Air subsidiary, Amazon has been delivering to homes in College Station, Texas, and Lockeford, California, with more locations soon to come online with a target of delivering to homes less than 60 minutes after ordering.
“These are careful first steps that we will turn into giant leaps for our customers over the next number of years,” said David Carbon, Prime Air vice president, in a LinkedIn post.
“Customers are our obsession, safety is our imperative, the future of delivery is our mandate, technology is unlocking that future, and our people are the foundation that it all sits on!”
Prime Air uses MK27-2 drones with six propellers and can move through the air with minimum noise at around 80kmh, while installed algorithms prevent collisions with obstacles such as power lines.
Amazon is some distance behind U.S. retailer Walmart in using drones for deliveries. Walmart drones deliver in seven U.S. states and completed 6,000 deliveries in 2022.
Walmart offers the service for a fee of USD4, and customers can order items up to 4.4kg, twice the payload of the initial Amazon drones. Deliveries arrive as little as 30 minutes after ordering.
Amazon aims to play catch up in drone delivery with its next-generation drone, the MK30, which is smaller and lighter than the MK27-2 and has a better range, additional safety features and the ability to fly in light rain.
The MK30 will also have new custom-designed propellers that will reduce its perceived noise by 25% compared to the MK27-2.
Drones are an innovation for retailers and have been assessed as having a positive environmental impact.
A study by Carnegie Mellon researchers reported that delivery drones emit 84% less greenhouse gases than diesel trucks and 31% less than electric vans.
Consulting firm Accenture estimates that drone deliveries could cut carbon emissions by 49 kilotons per year.
Image credit: iStockphoto/helivideo