Amazon and Jeremy Clarkson show off a drone delivery prototype in a brand-new series of videos.

Yes, Amazon still wants to deliver packages with drones. And we don’t blame them—using drones to drop off packages could be great for buyers, who might want to get certain items as fast as humanly (or dronely) possible. It could help Amazon save some money, depending on what it’s delivering. And, to be honest, it would just look pretty cool to have a drone descend from the sky with a box, drop it nicely on your porch, and fly off in a big flourish.

Amazon still needs to overcome a large number of regulatory issues before a single one of its drones can start dropping packages all over the place. However, that hasn’t stopped Amazon from continuing its research and development—or its marketing—surrounding drone-assisted deliveries. This time around, Amazon is showing off a prototype drone that could fly both vertically and horizontally to drop packages in a demarcated area. And the company has tapped into the verbal talents of ex-Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson, who is now working on a new show exclusive to Amazon Prime subscribers, to describe the flying device.

That said, don’t get too wedded to the drone you’ll see in Amazon’s latest video.

“We are testing many different vehicle designs and delivery mechanisms to discover how best to deliver packages in a variety of environments. We have more than a dozen prototypes that we’ve developed in our research and development labs. The look and characteristics of the vehicles will evolve over time,” reads a FAQ on the accompanying PrimeAir website.

Amazon’s goal is to use its flying drones to deliver packages that weigh no more than five pounds to locations anywhere from 10 to 15 miles from the company’s warehouses—sorry, in advance, for those who were hoping a drone would make an hour-long trip to drop off their new exercise weights. The drones would fly at an altitude of under 400 feet and, in theory, use a “sense and avoid” technology to ensure that they don’t run into anything else (be it another drone, another object in the sky, or a fixed object sticking out of the ground.

As The Verge notes, ordering a package to be delivered by Amazon Drone could theoretically take just 30 minutes from purchase to pick-up (in a best-case scenario, we wager).

Author: David Murphy
Source: PC Mag