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Drones

Jeremy Clarkson unveils Amazon's new delivery drone

By David Szondy
November 29, 2015
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The new Amazon drone is designed to make deliveries in under 30 minutes
The previous Amazon drone was a quadcopter
The previous Amazon drone carried its cargo externally
The new Amazon drone is a hybrid design
The new Amazon drone is designed to make deliveries in under 30 minutes
The new Amazon drone auto loading
The new Amazon drone has situational awareness
The new Amazon drone sends notices on arrival
The new Amazon drone homes in on visual markers
The new Amazon drone dropping off a package
View gallery - 9 images

Amazon has made no secret that it wants to start an aerial delivery service using drones and is continuing to invest in the idea. In its latest move, the company has released a video presented by former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson that unveils its latest autonomous drone designed to deliver small packages in under 30 minutes.

Part of Amazon's planned Prime Air Delivery service, the new drone is larger than the previous version and has a more advanced design, including the ability to apparently operate with an autoloading system that sets the payload inside an internal carrier bay. Unlike the previous drone, which was a quadcopter, this one has a hybrid design that combines vertical lift and horizontal flight capabilities using lift fans and a pusher prop.

Amazon hasn't given out too many details as to specs, but the drone is capable of flying at an altitude of about 400 ft (122 m) at about 55 mph (88 km/h) for a range of 15 mi (24 km). It has sense-and-avoid situational awareness technology, so it can identify and avoid obstacles in the air and while taking off and landing.

The new Amazon drone is a hybrid design

To prevent the neighbors nicking your new shoes, Amazon will send a notice as the drone approaches its destination. When it arrives, the craft goes into vertical mode, makes a visual scan of the area for obstacles, then homes in a landing marker put out by the recipient that matches the address. The drone then drops the package and immediately returns to base.

Amazon says that it will eventually develop a family of delivery drones to suit different environments. No start date for the projected Prime Air Delivery service has been announced, but this is not surprising given that the company is still ironing out technical details as well as dealing with the US FAA's still uncertain new regulations involving commercial drones.

Here's Clarkson in the latest Amazon Prime Air promo video:

Source: Amazon

View gallery - 9 images

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DronesUAVAmazon.ComAmazon Prime Air
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David Szondy
David Szondy is a playwright, author and journalist based in Seattle, Washington. A retired field archaeologist and university lecturer, he has a background in the history of science, technology, and medicine with a particular emphasis on aerospace, military, and cybernetic subjects. In addition, he is the author of four award-winning plays, a novel, reviews, and a plethora of scholarly works ranging from industrial archaeology to law. David has worked as a feature writer for many international magazines and has been a feature writer for New Atlas since 2011.
23 comments
Bill Bennett
My front and back yards are lots of trees, guess I will have to stick with Brown for delivery, works for me.
Jeremy Davies
Hmmm seems like a good time to get into the air-rifle business? I can just see the fun that will be had with these things until they are withdrawn from service (quite rapidly I would imagine!).
Right idea - Wrong world....
Nik
How about delivery of essential supplies to stranded mountaineers, or similar, maybe medical supplies in disaster zones?
Robert Walther
I have to agree with Davies above. This might be appropriate for some emergency type situations, but I think even a non gun owner like myself could get behind 'open season', no limit on this and many other types of drones.
LordBaal
So the skies of USA will become a huge piñata filled with valuable electronics and other stuff to anyone with a bb gun or even a large enough stick.
Mel Tisdale
Never mind bb guns or air pistols, let technology fight technology; let's all get GPS jammers so we can have a go at the autonomous cars when Amazon gives up on the idea.
Mexoplex 5 Million
This is the problem for Technology-the Ignorant. Why would you shoot down a drone? Do you shoot the mailman when he cuts through your lawn? The only people that should be worried about surveillance drones are Meth dealers and illegal weed growers. The same people that want to shoot down drones because they are "violating their Rights as an American" are the same ones that don't vote, try to get out of jury duty and all their passwords/pin are "1234" or "Password". Hey Mouth-breathers, nobody cares about your un-kept yard rebel flag trailer park.
jerryd
Why would anyone use Clarkson as such a loser. They need to make is out of foam so it hurts nothing if it comes down wrong and just 2 co-axial rotors above is more stable, lower cost, longer range, higher payload by a factor of 2+. Personally drones are going to be much more trouble than they are worth.
turbolove
I'm finally glad to read comments about how residential drone delivery is such a joke of an idea. Not only do I agree that it will be a target shooters paradise but frankly I just dont want to walk my dog, have a BBQ or be playing outside with my kid and have these things buzzing above me. I agree for emergency and remote access situations theres a use case but not in densely populated areas. Lets put a stop to this riduculous idea now!!!!
Holden_Caufield
Why would someone want to stop this? Why would you not want to get deliveries in 30 minutes? What's wrong with people? Do you mouth breathers think it will be legal for some reason to destroy Amazon's expensive property? You would go to jail, same if you tampered with a UPS truck. Morons.
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