Amazon Prime Air
Amazon enticed customers around the world in 2013 when they released a video of a drone delivering a package to a customer. However, the video was not real, but just a simulation of Amazon’s plans for the future. The hype has died down since then, but has been restored with Amazon officially declaring it has successfully made its first “drone delivery” in Cambridge, England. This package contained a Fire TV Stick and a bag of popcorn, and took 13 minutes from the moment ordered to the moment it was delivered. Amazon hopes this successful inaugural delivery is the first of a drone delivery program that will come to revolutionize online shopping.
The drone delivery service is a complicated, expensive, and questioned idea that Amazon has been fairly vague about overcoming in the past. However, Amazon recently won a request for a patent of what they call an “airborne fulfillment center (AFC)”. A large blimp, the fulfillment center would already be pre-stocked with the millions of items that can be currently purchased on Amazon. Small drones would then be deployed from the AFC with the product and deliver the items within minutes. The AFC will cruise the skies at over 40,000 feet, higher than commercial airplanes as to avoid air traffic problems. Whenever fuel, products, or maintenance would be required, smaller shuttles would be deployed from the ground up to the AFC.
An idea also hinted by Amazon was that for outdoor sporting events, such as football or soccer matches, AFC’s would hover directly over the stadium and be able to satisfy concession and merchandising wants of the crowds in attendance. This idea could also be militarized in quickly dropping gear and supplies to military units overseas.
Amazon also has also made it public that they could seek to use the tops of telephone poles as charging stations for drones on longer distance deliveries. However, it is unclear how much money it would take to implement the technology, and if they would be given the legal right to do so. It would seem near impossible for every single telephone pole in the U.S. (and especially the rest of the world) to be installed with the technology required.
Even though aspects of Amazon’s ideas sound ingenious, many questions become raised about how plausible the ideas really are. One of the major concerns is that the drones could be damaged, stolen, or tampered with by unruly citizens and customers. Another concern is that theft of packages would become easier without human protection. A question Amazon has yet to answer is if the technology will work for customers purchasing large, heavy items or if customers in rural areas will be close enough to an AFC. Will drones become the new norm for delivering mail, or is it just a false hope of a futuristic society? Either way, Amazon is really thinking outside the box.
