Amazon drone may replace ski lift on slopes of future
Tech giant patents plans for flying machines with tow ropes that can be summoned by smartphone
SKI lifts may become consigned to history with Amazon in the early stages of designing a drone that could drag people up a mountain using a tow handle.
The firm has patented plans to develop a drone that releases a retractable rope that skiers can summon using their smartphone. The drone will fly to their location and lower the rope, so the skier can hold on to the handle while the drone flies slowly up to the top of the slope.
Once the skier arrives at the top of the slope, the rope retracts and the drone flies off to help another user.
The tow handle could be fitted with buttons that could be pressed to speed up the drone or signal that the skier has reached their destination, according to the patent application, written by Gur Kimchi, the vice president of Amazon’s drone delivery project.
“An extreme skier may use the towing system to reach a remote ski area or to customise their skiing experience (e.g. off a designated run and for reaching fresh powder),” Amazon wrote in its patent filing. The tech giant suggested the drone tow could also be used for water-skiing or skateboarding.
Amazon is not the first business to investigate the potential of drones for skiing and snowboarding. In 2016, Samsung sponsored a video in which Casey Neistat, the YouTube star, used a drone to snowboard up a mountain.
The decision to patent a drone tow handle system does not guarantee that Amazon will produce it. Many tech firms patent technologies they have no intention of producing.
Amazon has a long history of patenting futuristic drone technologies. In 2016, it won a patent for an airship that could float above cities, providing floating warehousing for drone deliveries. Mr Kimchi has also patented a mileslong whip that could be used to fling satellites into space, guided by drones before they leave orbit.
The Daily Telegraph reported earlier this month that Amazon had almost doubled the number of employees working in Cambridge on its “Prime Air” drone delivery system. The site now employs more than 60 staff, including several “flight operators” who will fly the drones when they deliver parcels to customers. In May, as part of Government trials, a drone was used to fly medical supplies to the Isle of Wight.
Having conquered books, TV and delivering loo paper, Amazon is setting its sights on ski lifts: a drone with a retractable rope will pull skiers up the side of a mountain, eliminating queues in favour of a machine that feels about as safe as mountain climbing with dental floss.
But where will this drone revolution end? They might yet eliminate the postman altogether, and the more there are of them – whizzing about above our heads – the greater the clamour for regulation.
We’re going to need an air traffic control. Or traffic wardens, or lollipop ladies of the sky. What if people fly their drones too quickly or when drunk? There will have to be rules for that, too. And if your drone is on Mont Blanc when Italy comes down with a sickness, it will have until 4am tomorrow morning to get home.