Delivery incoming Amazon

Amazon has completed its first customer delivery by drone.

The company made the used its Prime Air service for the first time to deliver goods to a customer in Cambridgeshire on December 7. Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos confirmed the delivery in a tweet.

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 Advertisement — Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) December 14, 2016

Amazon said a new private trial – also in the UK – will now deliver packages up to 2.3 kg in weight in 30 minutes or less using the drones, which it began testing earlier this year. The initial trial will start with two customers, with plans to expand to others in the local area.

Amazon’s drones are fully autonomous and are dispatched from a local centre. After customers make their order, their boxed goods are placed inside the body of the drone. The drone is then sent outside down an automated track before taking off vertically. The drones are guided by GPS and fly below 120 m to land on ground near the customer’s home.

Safety questions

Questions over the safe use of drones remain, however, with a number of near-misses involving commercial aircraft and amateur drone pilots reported this year.

Amazon has proposed using its crafts in “segregated blocks of airspace below 500 feet (150 m) and away from most manned aviation operations”.

Amazon also said its drones will use “sense and avoid” technology and data will be continuously gathered throughout the trial to make improvements, calling safety its “top priority”.

The company added that the current trial was only permitted to operate during daylight hours with low winds and good visibility, and not in rain, snow or icy conditions.