Delivery drone completes first UK flight

Monday, December 19, 2016 - 12:38 by Mike Price

E-commerce giant, Amazon, has been working on a drone-based delivery service for some time, but this month it confirmed that it had successfully completed the shipping of a package to a British customer, according to the Guardian.

The drones can handle packages weighing up to 2.6 kilograms, with Amazon’s initial trial of the service being carried out in Cambridgeshire and allowing a range of items to be delivered within 13 minutes of the shopper confirming the order.

Known as Prime Air, this service makes use of drones which are fully autonomous, meaning there is no need for a human pilot to be involved and they can navigate obstacles and reach their destination accurately.

Although the trial is limited to a specific area and regulators put restrictions on how far these autonomous drones can travel untended, it is the first step in a scheme which could reshape the world of shopping online in the future.

There are some other issues to take into account, chief among which is the fact that customers will need to have a large enough garden to accommodate the drone’s landing unhindered.

Although Amazon is a US company, it has been trialling its delivery drones in British airways because it has more freedom to experiment with autonomous tech especially in rural areas, where there are fewer hoops to jump through.

The reality of urban drone-based deliveries is likely to be harder to achieve, if it is at all possible. But Amazon and others are working on alternative land-based autonomous vehicles, which could provide last mile coverage in towns and cities.

The days of having to wait around for someone to turn up with an item ordered online may eventually be over, but this process seems set to remain in place for the next few years.