Switzerland is now testing package delivery drones

For these tests Swiss Post has teamed up with Swiss WorldCargo, the air freight division of Swiss worldwide Air Lines, and Matternet which is a logistics drone maker in California.

Eventually for areas which are hard to access such as mountanous regions this will be the postal service of the future. In addition, there are technical restrictions with current drones, such as limited battery life. They intend to test and assess the cost-effectiveness and practical use of drones in delivery processes.

An employes of the USA drone compagny Matternet shows a drone carrying a mail box of Swiss Post at the airport of Bellechasse, western Switzerland during a press conference.

The trial would focus on the use of drones in exceptional cases or for the transport of special items.

However, in the U.S. this is still a ways off because of regulations have yet to be put in place by the FAA for commercial delivery drones. Which specific uses will prevail depends on how quickly the regulatory requirements are clarified and technical obstacles dismantled. “Another realistic possibility is the urgent transport of consignments with the highest priority, such as laboratory tests”, it said.

The drone being used during the trial is the Matternet One, which has been designed especially for transportation and can carry packages weighing 1kg over distances of 20km per charge.

Amazon.com and other companies, including Google Inc, are also working to develop sophisticated drone operations capable of delivering packages to consumers.

Swiss Post said that the technology, and the practice would be thoroughly tested before being put into any wide-scale use.

Swiss Post, you can have that one for free… The drone flies autonomously and follows flight plans laid out in cloud software.