Amazon Testing Delivery With Drones, CEO Bezos Says

WASHINGTON -Amazon CEO Jeff Bezosrevealed Sunday that hiscompany is looking to thefuture with plans to use”octocopter” mini-dronesto fly small packages toconsumers in just 30 minutes.The US retail giant’s ambitiousproject still requires additional safetytesting and federal approval, but Bezosestimated that Amazon “Prime Air”would be up and running within four tofive years.A demo video posted on the company’swebsite showed the tiny robotic devicespicking up packages in small yellowbuckets from Amazon’s fulfillment centersand then whizzing through the air todeliver the items to customers just 30minutes after they made their purchaseon Amazon.com.”I know this looks like science fiction.It’s not,” Bezos told CBS television’s “60Minutes” program.”We can do half-hour delivery… and wecan carry objects, we think, up to fivepounds (2.3 kilograms), which covers 86percent of the items that we deliver.”The mini-drones are powered by electricmotors and could cover areas within a10-mile (16-kilometer) radius of fulfillmentcenters, thus covering a significantportion of the population in urban areas.They operate autonomously and dropthe items at the target locations thanks toGPS coordinates transmitted to them.