Amazon Prime Air, here is the drone that could revolutionize the world of deliveries

Amazon has unveiled the latest version of its Prime Air delivery via drone. It is a hybrid aircraft capable of taking off and landing with vertical maneuvers, and at the same time of traveling at high speeds. The company has confirmed that it wants to launch a delivery service based on the new vehicle starting from the next few months, but has not yet declared where the service will be available and what it will be.

During the presentation, held during the Re: MARS conference in Las Vegas, Amazon’s Jeff Wilke also spoke of security: ” We know that customers will be at ease in receiving drone deliveries only if the system is incredibly secure “, his words. According to Wilke, the new drone will be ” robust and stable as a commercial aircraft “, a statement that has yet to be demonstrated given that it is a technology still in its infancy.

To detect possible dangers and obstacles the new drone uses thermal cameras, depth cameras and even a sonar. You can take advantage of machine learning models to anticipate any flight problems and get around them in good time. Paragliders, power lines, and any pets, once they have arrived in the yard, will be handled in a suitable manner from time to time, in order to ensure the delivery of the package in total safety to the user.

Amazon has also chosen to cover the rotors of the drone through small supports that act as wings during flight at high speeds. The vehicle uses six propellers, and not four, to offer a greater degree of dynamism to the maneuvers, and all the propellers can be oriented so as to manage the speed, whether you are in flight, or for landing and take-off operations. The packages will instead be transported in the fuselage placed in the center of the aircraft.

With the new vehicle, Amazon confirms its goal regarding deliveries via drone, which is to deliver packages weighing up to 2.5 kg up to 25 km, all in less than 30 minutes. The weight limit may seem like a heavy restriction, but it only sacrifices 25 to 10% of shipments that are requested on the e-commerce portal. Amazon has remained rather vague about when Prime Air services based on the new technology will actually be made available to the public.

Wilke said only that ” it’s a matter of months “, and the fact that the drone has yet to be approved by the FAA should not be underestimated, even though the company pointed out that it is composed of individual components already approved by the association.

It must be said that Prime Air was announced for the first time in 2013, and faced several problems related to logistics and regulations. The first drone delivery was completed only in 2016, although it was a few isolated cases, and not a regular service that users could select.

In short, being able to organize an entire service of deliveries via drone has proved over time to be a much more arduous task than to launch a vehicle capable of doing so. We’ll see if (and when) Amazon manages to keep its promises.