A few months back Amazon unveiled Prime Air. Its a service that aims to deliver goods purchased through the online marketplace within half an hour, and to do so, it would employ drones. Sure, Amazon Prime Air is an optimistic idea, one that can’t quite literally take off right now due to various legal and technical issues. Until those are resolved, the service is grounded. But the company has been working hard in the meantime. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says that they are already in the design phase of seventh and eighth generation delivery drones.
In a letter to shareholders, Bezos reveals that they have been rapidly testing prototype. Fifth and sixth generation delivery vehicles have already been put through flight testing. Now it is unclear how much advancement there is between these generations, but its not like the engineering team doesn’t have a titanic task on their hands.
On paper delivery drones make sense, but they have to be able to carry up to five pounds of cargo and have sufficient battery to travel at least ten miles. Bezos knows that all this won’t be accomplished soon. He has already said that the service is at least four to five years away. In the letter, in which he talks a great deal about Prime Air, Bezos doesn’t say that their rapid testing will enable them to launch the service earlier than expected.