amazonprimeair
Latest
Amazon's cargo jets cut shipping costs by carrying the light loads
If you got a speedy delivery on a last-minute gift at the height of holiday season, you might have Amazon's fleet of cargo planes to thank for pulling off a minor miracle. Although Amazon says the fleet is only meant to supplement Fedex and UPS at the moment, its own air cargo business will eventually play an important part in letting Amazon handle end-to-end logistics. According to a new report from Reuters, Jeff Bezos and company have already figured out how to leverage their private fleet to minimize overhead while getting the most out of their shipping partners at the same time.
Amazon explores using street lights as delivery drone perches
Amazon's Prime Air delivery drones already have a glaring problem: how do you keep them charged and sheltered when dedicated facilities are likely to be few and far between? The company has an idea. It recently received a patent for a "UAV docking station" concept that would offer a temporary perch for drones in need. If a drone runs low on battery or needs to take shelter from an impending storm, it would only have to travel to a station on top of a street light, cell tower, church steeple or another high-up location. The drone could even drop off a package for another drone, turning a delivery into an aerial relay race.
Computer vision is key to Amazon Prime Air drone deliveries
For all of Amazon's grand plans regarding delivery drones, it still needs to figure out concepts we take for granted with traditional courier methods. Namely, figuring out how to drop off your latest order without destroying anything (including the UAV itself) during transit and landing. That's where advanced computer vision comes in from Jeff Bezos' new team of Austria-based engineers, according to The Verge. The group invented methods for reconstructing geometry from images and contextually recognizing environmental objects, giving the drones the ability to differentiate between, say, a swimming pool and your back patio. Both are flat surfaces, but one won't leave your PlayStation VR headset waterlogged after drop-off.
Amazon and Jeremy Clarkson hint at the future of delivery drones
Former Top Gear co-host Jeremy Clarkson isn't just working on a new motoring show for Amazon... he's helping the internet giant pitch its vision for delivery drones, too. Amazon has unveiled a splashy new Prime Air ad where Clarkson shows off a new, more powerful drone design (with promises of a "whole family" of others) and outlines how these robots would ship a pair of running shoes. All you'd have to do is place your order and plunk down a marker to tell the drone where to land. From there, the robot would use its mix of horizontal and vertical propellers to ferry your cargo (up to 15 miles from its home base) in 30 minutes or less. You'd even get a heads-up when the drone is close, so you wouldn't have to worry about someone swiping your package the moment it arrives.
Amazon threatens to take its delivery drone testing overseas
Amazon things, delivered by drone! The possible future! The project was first teased on 60 Minutes a little over a year ago, and while there's been some movement, it's apparently not progressing fast enough. Now Amazon's taken the Federal Aviation Agency to task, and told the FAA (and the media) exactly why. The aggrieved letter totals seven pages, plus appendices, as it's actually the part of the exemption application for Amazon's drone experiments. "Without approval of our testing in the United States, we will be forced to continue expanding our Prime Air R&D footprint abroad," Amazon's VP of global public policy Paul Misener, wrote in the letter. The company now aims to shift more of its drone testing outside of the US, unless regulators are able to give permission for the company's outdoor trials soon.
Amazon is hiring someone to oversee its courier drones
Want Amazon's Prime Air courier drones to enter service as quickly as possible? You can now do something about it... provided you have years of aviation experience under your belt, anyway. The online retailer is hiring a Flight Safety Manager that will oversee its drone flight tests and make sure these robots deliver their goods without a hitch. Amazon still has plenty of regulatory and technological hurdles to overcome before a position like this is more than a novelty, but its very existence is proof that the company is serious about unmanned aerial shipping. If you want to get a sense of what a drone safety job would entail, you can head below to check out 3D Robotics' flight demo from Engadget Expand.
