Amazon Prime Air drone deliveries began in time for Christmas
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It ain't a sleigh and reindeer, but Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) on Friday began deliveries using Prime Air drones in Lockeford, California, and College Station, Texas. Amazon (AMZN) hopes to use feedback from the service to improve its operations, and eventually scale the service nationwide. To fly delivery drones in the U.S., companies have to be approved by the FAA, and the retail behemoth is one of only several firms in the U.S. that has received Part 135 certification.
How it works? Once onboarded, customers can see Prime Air-eligible items on Amazon (AMZN). They place their order as they normally would and receive an estimated arrival time with a status tracker. For these deliveries, the drone will fly to the designated delivery location, descend to the customerâs backyard, and hover at a safe height. It will then release the package and rise back up to altitude.
"Our aim is to safely introduce our drones to the skies. We are starting in these communities and will gradually expand deliveries to more customers over time," said Natalie Banke, spokesperson at Prime Air.
The competition: Alphabet's (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Wing launched commercial service just north of Dallas in April, and hopes to soon press the button on wide-scale deployment. Walmart's (NYSE:WMT) drone delivery program is also available to households in Dallas, Orlando, Phoenix and Tampa, making it possible for customers to get diapers or dinner ingredients delivered in 30 minutes or less. Meanwhile, Uber Eats (NYSE:UBER) has promised to ratchet up drone delivery operations in the near future, but until now, the technology has been mainly focused on small-scale trials.