Sure, we all wondered if Amazon’s foray into drone delivery would fall to the wayside, following the e-commerce giant’s recently unveiled grab-now-pay-later, machine learning-based grocery stores (read about Amazon Go here). But the company has other plans—and milestones to make.
On December 7th, Amazon made its first Prime Air drone delivery—a Fire TV device and bag of popcorn—to a house near Cambridge in the U.K. thirteen minutes after its facility received the online order. News of the unmanned aerial feat hit the Internet following a Tweet from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, as well as in a video that showcases the quadcopter, package in tow, whizzing across the sprawling English countryside.
In keeping with U.K. laws, the aircraft flew no higher than 400 feet, and a human operator was on standby in the event of technical failure.
Right now, drone delivery service extends to two customers (including Richard B. of Cambridgeshire, the man featured in the video) who live within a few miles of Amazon’s facility, but the company plans to extend participation to more people, following customer feedback.
“After that,” the video concludes, “well it’d be easy to say the sky’s the limit, but that’s not exactly true anymore, is it?”
Filed Under: M2M (machine to machine)