Amazon could deliver books in 30 minutes

02/12/2013. [VIDEO] from Amazon
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA

Online retail giant Amazon has presented a prototype for a service that uses flying robots to deliver packages to customers within half an hour of ordering.

Image courtesy of Amazon.

The service called Amazon Prime Air and would be available to customers living within a ten mile radius of one of Amazon's distribution centres.

The goal of this new delivery system is to get packages into customers' hands in 30 minutes or less using unmanned aerial vehicles.

Putting Prime Air into commercial use will take some number of years as we advance the technology and wait for the necessary FAA rules and regulations.

It looks like science fiction, but it's real. From a technology point of view, we'll be ready to enter commercial operations as soon as the necessary regulations are in place. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is actively working on rules for unmanned aerial vehicles. They hope the FAA's rules will be in place as early as sometime in 2015.

A video released by Amazon shows a drone collecting a package inside a plastic container from a conveyor belt at a distribution centre before taking off and delivering it to the customer's doorstep. The flying robots would be directed by GPS to coordinates specified by the customer. Check out this footage from a recent test flight.