The Washington Post has revealed that the Amazon Delivery Drone video had to be shot overseas as the Federal Aviation Administration refused permission to film them in the US.
Jeff Bezos did make it pretty clear that deployment of the drones would be five years into the future, but not even being able to get permission for a test flight for a video underlines how this technology really is in it’s infancy. The Post says that it won’t be until “2015 that the FAA finally integrates small drones into the national airspace, with full-on commercial drones getting addressed sometime later”.
2015 isn’t that far off, but with range and ability of the drones to avoid humans, power lines and be able to spot a suitable landing point/drop off zone at a random customer’s house, there are a ton of problems to solve before actually getting permission to fly becomes the main issue.
Will drones ever become mainstream delivery vehicles? It’s hard to believe that the skies will one day be congested with competing drones from different delivery companies all trying to land in my back garden. If the day does come I’ll be buying even more online…. just because it’d be amazing to see the drones landing and taking off.
