Today, it’s possible to order almost any product online and receive
it the next day with a press of a button. Now, companies like Amazon and
Google are taking that idea one step further, experimenting with
airborne drones to deliver parcels to customers’ doorsteps mere hours
after they make a purchase.
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, wants to begin delivering packages via drones to consumers by 2017. Amazon has been vocal about its plans for drone delivery, which the company calls Amazon Prime Air.
It claims Prime Air will “safely get packages into consumers’ hands in
30 minutes or less.” Walmart recently applied to U.S. regulators for
permission to test drones for home delivery, too.
The promise of receiving items minutes after they’re ordered is
enticing. But there are several roadblocks to navigate before that world
becomes a reality. The biggest hurdle is regulation — the Federal
Aviation Administration, which oversees American airspace, has been slow
to establish clear-cut rules regarding commercial drone use and
delivery. The FAA expects to issue more concrete rules in the coming
months, but that process has been delayed several times in the past.
That doesn’t mean we’ll never get our next Amazon Prime order
delivered by a drone. “It will probably happen, but there are sizable
obstacles to overcome,” says David Vanderhoof, the co-host of UAV
Digest, a weekly podcast covering unmanned aerial vehicle systems.
One big challenge is keeping the skies safe. Amazon has proposed
a plan that would designate certain airspace for low- and high-speed
drones. But drones are also banned from flying within five miles of an
airport unless special permission is granted. That could be troublesome
for shoppers who live near airports and want same-day delivery — much of
New York City, for instance, is considered verboten for drone traffic
under this rule.
Then there’s the question of technology. Vanderhoof noted that
lithium ion batteries, a variation of which power some consumer drones,
such as the popular DJI Phantom, may not provide enough power for the
aircraft to haul heavy packages over long distances. “If you have a
30-minute lifespan, you’re only going to get about 20 minutes of
flying,” he says. “Those are the kinds of things we need to be thinking
about.”
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