Amazon Makes First Drone Delivery in England
Prime Air, a potential major step in technology, takes its maiden voyage to the skies
December 14, 2016Lovers of the eventual robot takeover rejoice – Amazon has just completed its first drone delivery!
On Wednesday, Amazon chief Jeff Bezos took to Twitter to announce that the company had made its first commercial drone delivery on Dec. 7 in Cambridgeshire, England.
First-ever #AmazonPrimeAir customer delivery is in the books. 13 min—click to delivery. Check out the video: https://t.co/Xl8HiQMA1S pic.twitter.com/5HGsmHvPlE
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) December 14, 2016
The launch is a milestone in online retail and the service, Prime Air, might eventually allow customers to receive their orders in a matter of minutes. Wednesday’s delivery, for instance, an Amazon Fire and popcorn, was launched from a nearby Amazon warehouse two miles away and delivered in only 13 minutes.
Amazon will be expanding the drone trial in the coming months to include more participants, but thus far the testing has been limited to England, due to stricter American regulations which prohibit the company from sending drones through U.S. skies.
Amazon isn’t the first company to test delivery drones. 7-Eleven tested delivering food to customers in Reno, Nev., and Google has air delivered Chipotle burritos at Virginia Tech. Chinese internet retailer JD.com and New Zealand’s own Domino’s Pizza has been testing the technology in their respective countries as well.
Read more about the drone deliveries here.