Amazon to Use Drones to Deliver Products

Amazon customers in Lockeford, California, will become the first to receive Prime Air deliveries.

Amazon received flying drone approval from the Federal Aviation Administration in 2020. Prime Air Drone will start to deliver products to their customer later this year in Lockeford, California. This is the first time the company plans to use drones for deliveries. Amazon said it plans to deliver products by drone into the backyards of residents in Lockeford, California, and their feedback will play an integral role in improving the system. Amazon chooses Lockeford as it has historical links to the aviation industry. One of the early pioneers of aviation—Weldon B. Cooke, who built and flew early planes in the early 1900s, was a former resident of Lockeford.

Companies like Alphabet and Walmart have started to make similar flying deliveries long back. The drone delivery program of Walmart is accessible to more than 4millon customers in the U.S., and Alphabet’s Wing program has been delivering food and other products in Australia. However, Amazon said they had created a sophisticated and industry-leading sense-and-avoid system. This drone will enable operations without visual observers and allow the drone to operate at greater distances while reliably and safely avoiding other aircraft, pets, people, chimneys, and other obstacles.

Amazon said, “If obstacles are identified, our drone will automatically change course to safely avoid them.”