As it takes the next step in expanding its logistical capabilities, Amazon plans to begin delivery by drone to customers in Lockeford, CA.
Lockeford customer feedback about the Prime Air drone service will help determine how Amazon goes forward with airborne delivery, the retailer indicated. Drones will deliver packages in customers’ backyards. Once the service is initiated, customers in Lockeford will see Prime Air-eligible items on Amazon, and they will be able to place an order as they normally would, receiving an estimated arrival time with a status tracker for their order. For the deliveries, the drone will fly to the designated delivery location, descend to the customer’s backyard and hover at a safe height and safely release the package and rise back up to altitude, as Amazon described it.
The Amazon drones operate with a sophisticated sense-and-avoid system that will enable operations without visual observers, the company asserted, and allow the aircraft to operate at greater distances while safely and reliably avoiding other aircraft, people, pets and obstacles while flying and delivering.
Amazon has been working with officials from the Federal Aviation Administration and local government in Lockeford on drone delivery approvals, it stated. The company maintained its Prime Air division is one of only three drone-delivery operations that has gone through the rigorous process required to earn an FAA air carrier certificate, required to operate drones using advanced capabilities.
