Amazon's Drone Delivery System Is Almost Here - This Is What It Looks Like Jack Smith IV - Tech.Mic
go to original January 3, 2016

Amazon Prime Air: Science fiction no more (Amazon)

Amazon has unveiled video footage of a new kind of delivery drone in action, and it's a far cry from the kind of drones they've tested so far.

Where most drones used by photographers, drone racers and hobbyists are quadcopters, Amazon's new drone is designed more like a plane/helicopter hybrid, meant to take off vertically with propellers to "nearly 400 feet." It can then fly for up to 15 miles at high speeds. This kind of dual-mode of design has been the long-held goal of both the military and anyone trying to design the future of flying cars.

In Amazon's mock-up footage, the drone scans the ground looking for a drop-off point, but Amazon has already patented a system that would track an individual's location to bring you a package wherever you are, privacy concerns be damned.

These aren't meant to replace the quadcopters Amazon has already unveiled, but will be the next model in what Amazon calls a "family of drones." In the same way Amazon's factories have used robotics to wean themselves off of human sorters and warehouse workers, a fleet of Amazon drones could sever Amazon's dependance on third-party delivery systems like UPS and the U.S. Postal Service.

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