Amazon uses drone to fly package in England
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Experts say that the advent of widespread drone deliveries, even if technically possible, would take years, and regulators from the United States and elsewhere could block the plans.
But even if drones end up handling only a small portion of Amazon’s overall deliveries, the implications could be far-reaching.
The company, for instance, might not need as many truck drivers or other costly logistical operations. Drones could also have environmental benefifits, by reducing reliance on pollution-belching vehicles. The biggest boon may be to customers, who could be able to receive their orders more quickly, depending where they live.
The fact that Amazon’s latest drone tests were in Britain is no coincidence.
The country’s regulators have been more cooperative than their U.S. counterparts about such flflights, even signing an agreement with Amazon in July to allow the testing of drones in rural and suburban areas.
As part of those trials — some of which have taken place at a secretive farm in rural Cambridgeshire — Amazon has been allowed to flfly drones without a human pilot at the controls, navigating to destinations solely by GPS. The company says it has developed “sense-andavoid” technology to help the machines flfly around towers, birds and other obstructions.
Not all of the residents in the area have been fans, however.
Julia Napier, who helped found a Cambridgeshire association that maintains public footpaths around one of Amazon’s test sites, said the company’s drones threatened wildlife and the wider countryside, something that the company has denied.
“They are testing those drones here because they can’t do it in America,” she said. “Whatever the Americans don’t want, I don’t want it, either.”