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  • Author Author: bluescreen
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Amazon moves one step closer to drone deliveries

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Amazon.com moved one step closer to realizing its dream of using drones to deliver orders to its customers across the United States. The Federal Aviation Administration issued Amazon with an experimental airworthiness certificate last week which allows it to experiment with new drone designs for research and development and crew training.

 

As EETimes' Junko Yoshida explains, this may be more of a symbolic victory for Amazon than a step which takes it appreciably further down the road of commercial drone delivery:

 

Amazon’s certificate allows experiments with new drone designs for R&D and crew training, but not for commercial purposes. An “airworthiness certificate” is fundamentally different from the “exemptions” some drone operators have gotten from the FAA, under what’s called Section 333. Those with exemptions under Section 333 can perform commercial operations in low-risk, controlled environments...

 

Obviously, it wasn’t the company’s first choice, either. Critics describe an experimental airworthiness certificate as “the same document required for a private, non-commercial plane owner to fly a Cessna.”

 

The main benefit of receiving the FAA nod is that Amazon may now test drones outside, rather than just in an enclosed space.

 

Whether the future of online shopping will include automated drone delivery remains to be seen. But if Amazon can convince the FAA that its UAVs are safe enough for commercial use, the future could look like this:

 

 

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  • There was a news article last week about how in UAE government documents were/are being delivered between departments within minutes.

    I didn't understand why a secure VPN was not used, but maybe there are other reasons.

    Quite impressive that Amazon is continually working to optimize delivery. I thought next-day delivery was good, but it is good that Amazon expects faster delivery is possible, or dramatically reduced transport costs.

    Lots of things to consider such as safety etc., but hopefully they can be addressed (e.g. redundant computer, standby battery..).

Comment

  • There was a news article last week about how in UAE government documents were/are being delivered between departments within minutes.

    I didn't understand why a secure VPN was not used, but maybe there are other reasons.

    Quite impressive that Amazon is continually working to optimize delivery. I thought next-day delivery was good, but it is good that Amazon expects faster delivery is possible, or dramatically reduced transport costs.

    Lots of things to consider such as safety etc., but hopefully they can be addressed (e.g. redundant computer, standby battery..).

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