Drones Instead Of Santa?

In only a couple of years’ time your Amazon Christmas shopping could arrive 30 minutes after purchase. Imagine that?!

Jeff Bezos showed off prototype drone devices that could deliver small packages from Amazon warehouses directly to customers’ homes. The drones would be able to carry packages that weigh up to 5lbs (3.2kg), which accounts for 86% of the parcels the company currently delivers.

Of course, there are all manner of regulatory and operational difficulties to overcome first, not least the approval of the relevant aviation authorities, which would have to approve the use of the drones, although both US and European authorities have signalled their willingness to consider the use of civilian drones in their airspace.

“We hope the FAA’s [the US Federal Aviation Authority’s] rules will be in place as early as sometime in 2015,” the company says on its website. “We will be ready at that time.”

There is also an issue of where the drones will drop off parcels. This will be fine for those with big gardens, but for those that live in confined spaces and in flats, it may be a problem.

Another problem could be drones clogging up the skies. This really won’t leave any room for Santa.

“Safety will be our top priority, and our vehicles will be built with multiple redundancies and designed to commercial aviation standards,” Amazon adds.