Customers in Lockeford, California, will be among the first to receive drone deliveries later this year, according to Amazon.com.
This would be Amazon‘s first public drone delivery, following many trials and mission-specific initiatives from corporations like Walmart Inc, United Parcel Service Inc, and FedEx Corp.
Amazon stated that it was in the process of acquiring approvals from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and city officials. The drones will be able to fly beyond line of sight (BLOS) and will be programmed to deliver packages to customers’ backyards.
“Once onboarded, customers in Lockeford will see Prime Air-eligible items on Amazon,” Amazon said in a blog post. “They will place an order as they normally would and receive an estimated arrival time with a status tracker for their order. For these deliveries, the drone will fly to the designated delivery location, descend to the customer’s backyard, and hover at a safe height. It will then safely release the package and rise back up to altitude.”
“It took years of inventing, testing, and improving to develop these breakthrough technologies, and we’re excited to use them to make customer deliveries,” the company said in the blog post.
