Amazon tests delivery drones at secret Canada site after US frustration..

Are you ready for 'Amazon Prime Air'?

Yes, it's April 1st, but this story is not made up, it's an exclusive report from the 30th March 2015 with the byline Guardian gains access to unnamed British Columbia site where tech giant’s roboticists and engineers, stymied by American regulation, are now developing their unmanned domestic delivery service.

I could barely believe this story when it was originally announced at the end of 2013 on  Amazon's Prime Air page and the BBC that Amazon was testing package delivery by drone. The aim of the retailer is offer customers the choice to have packages dropped on their doorstep by flying robots within 30 minutes of ordering goods online. It seemed like science fiction turned into a nice piece publicity stunt.

The report this week shows that this is "for real" and Amazon has been busy developing and testing through 2014. The new details have emerged in a Guardian interview with Gur Kimchi, the architect and head of Prime Air [love the name]. He explained that due to an ongoing battle with the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), Amazon has decided to focus its testing and development in Canada where the authorities have fast-tracked permission for testing.

"The end goal is to utilise what Amazon sees as a slice of virgin airspace – above 200ft, where most buildings end, and below 500ft, where general aviation begins. Into that aerial slice the company plans to pour highly autonomous drones of less than 55lbs, flying through corridors 10 miles or longer at 50mph and carrying payloads of up to 5lbs that account for 86% of all the company’s packages".

Can you imagine how this will work if all the carriers like FedEx, UPS, etc have their own drones?

Yet, Amazon seems to be on a mission - perhaps it's the Bezos version of Steve Job's 'Reality Distortion Field". Testing of advanced prototypes is already underway for fine turing sensors that can detect and avoid obstacles in a drone’s path; procedures for if link-loss the drone loses its connection with base and stability in the wind.

So, it seems Amazon are intent on making this happen, but will politicians permit it; will consumers care enough for politicians to do anything? Judging from the 500+ comments on the Guardian article there are major concerns about safety and environmental impact, but there were about the railways and the car...

Images: Amazon/Guardian