Sky News:Â Online shopping giant Amazon says it has successfully delivered its first package to a customer using a drone.
‘Richard B’ is one of two people taking part in a trial to help test the technology near Cambridge.
The company released a video showing the drone taking off from a warehouse and flying below 400ft over fields to deliver the package outside his home 13 minutes later.
In a world first for the company, the drone drop took place on 7 December and contained a bag of popcorn and an Amazon Fire TV stick.
The craft is described as fully autonomous with no human pilots involved.
Under Amazon’s Prime Air service, the company aims to make deliveries in 30 minutes or less.
Packages must weigh 5lbs (2.27kg) or less and can only be delivered during the day and in clear weather.
Amazon plans to expand the trial to dozens of people living within several miles of the warehouse and then hundreds more users in the future.
It said: “Prime Air has great potential to enhance the services we already provide to millions of customers by providing rapid parcel delivery that will also increase the overall safety and efficiency of the transportation system.”
It pointed out it had permission from the Government to conduct extensive tests in three areas:
- Beyond line-of-sight operations in rural and suburban areas.
- Sensor performance associated with sense-and-avoid.
- Flights where one person operates multiple highly-automated drones.
Despite the prospect of half-hour deliveries, some have claimed that the company’s drones could be hacked and hijacked.
Colin Bull. from software specialists SQS, has urged Amazon to install an emergency jamming system to alleviate the threat of hijack.
He told InfoSecurity Magazine: “Putting it bluntly, these devices are in fact a flying payload system with the ability to deliver anything including incendiary devices or grenades in to uncontrolled airspace in the way that only Unmanned Aerial Vehicles have been able to do in the past.”
