In 2013, former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said that the company is working on introducing the ability to deliver orders within 30 minutes using drones. At the time, Bezos said the service would not launch until 2015. In fact, it’s only now, almost 10 years after the announcement, that Amazon is saying its Prime Air service is almost ready to go.

Toward the end of this year, Amazon intends to start delivering drones in Lockford, California. In the UAV pilot program, the companies will deliver “thousands” of different items directly to the backyards of Amazon customers in the area.

“Their feedback on Prime Air with drones delivering packages to their backyards will help us build a service that scales safely to meet the needs of customers around the world,” Amazon said.

Prior to the launch of the Amazon pilot project, it has yet to be certified by the US Federal Aviation Administration. The company has not yet specified which goods it will deliver using the service.

According to Amazon, it took significantly longer to prepare Prime Air due to the fact that the drone service turned out to be more complex. The company notes that it has spent much of the last decade developing an “industry-leading” navigation system that will allow its drones to avoid both static and moving objects. Development was not the easiest. Last year, 5 Amazon drones crashed within 4 months. Apparently, the company finally managed to solve all the problems.

Amazon Prime Air drone delivers first public demonstration in US

Source: Engadget