Amazon shows off new prototype delivery drone

In the promotional video for Prime Air, Clarkson describes Amazon’s drone design in a way that is meant to assuage safety concerns.

Amazon has been talking about using drones to deliver packages for a couple of years, and today it debuted the drone in a commercial starring Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson explained how the company will get packages from their warehouses to your front yard.

The ad shows a new prototype model of the Prime Air drone – this one looks larger and quite a bit more custom-tailored to deliveries than the model first shown a couple of years ago. After a package (which must be 5 pounds or less) is loaded into the drone’s fuselage, the drone rises vertically up to 400 feet (as per FAA regulations for hobby aircraft) and then switches propeller systems to fly horizontally to its destination.

As you would probably expect, these super-speedy deliveries will be facilitated by drones, and Amazon has unveiled a new prototype drone that blends elements of a helicopter with those of an airplace. The company has bulked up its Prime Air team and run tests overseas, though apparently it has yet to make deliveries to customers using the unmanned vehicles.

“Different designs for different environments”. Critics have voiced concerns that drones may be susceptible to weather events, bird attacks or other obstacles.

How soon will you be able to use drone delivery?

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for additional information. PrimeAir isn’t something that the company is going to roll out yet: Amazon still needs to figure out the regulatory environment. Amazon expressed its disagreement with this restriction over the summer, and the new drone video asserts that the vehicles can safely go further distances.

“Putting Prime Air into service will take some time”, Amazon said.