The age of instant gratification has reached new heights, thanks to the impending arrival of Amazon’s super-fast drone deliveries. In the company’s first trial for its new airborne service, a customer in Cambridge, England, received a package containing an Amazon Fire TV box and a packet of popcorn just 13 minutes after placing his order.
Yet patience has not been abolished quite yet, as the trial currently involves just two people living close to the retail giant’s Cambridgeshire warehouse. The waiting game goes on for most of us, although Amazon says it has plans to expand the trial to more people in the near future.
Known as Amazon Prime Air, the service involves the use of completely autonomous quadcopter drones that navigate using GPS to deliver items to customers’ homes, flying at heights of just under 120 meters (400 feet). While this technology has been available for some time, Amazon and other retailers remain unable to offer this type of delivery system in the US, because the Federal Aviation Administration doesn’t allow commercial drones to be flown out of view of their operators.
Yet British authorities have given Amazon permission to fly drones that are no longer within sight of their operators in certain rural areas, while also allowing the company to implement systems that involve a single person operating multiple drones.
Amazon promises that once launched, the service will allow customers to receive their items within 30 minutes of placing their order.