Amazon introducing 30 minute drone delivery

Amazon expects to offer customers drone delivery in under 30 minutes ‘within months’.

The e-commerce giant unveiled the latest Prime Air drone design at its re:MARS Conference in Las Vegas last week.

Jeff Wilke, CEO of global consumer at Amazon said in a blogpost that the company has been working hard at building “fully electric drones that can fly up to 15 miles and deliver packages under five pounds to customers in less than 30 minutes”.

“With the help of our world-class fulfillment and delivery network, we expect to scale Prime Air both quickly and efficiently, delivering packages via drone to customers within months,” Wilke said.

The Prime Air drone features a hybrid design and can do vertical takeoffs and landings.

Wilke said that Prime Air is one of many sustainability initiatives to help achieve Shipment Zero, the company’s vision to make all Amazon shipments net zero carbon, with 50 per cent of all shipments net zero by 2030.

“When it comes to emissions and energy efficiency, an electric drone, charged using sustainable means, traveling to drop off a package is a vast improvement over a car on the road,” Wilke said.