Amazon Shows Off Future of Shipping: Prime Air, Set to Deliver Your Order within 30 Minutes

It’s not April 1st, but after learning about what Amazon has in store for the future, you’re sure to triple-check the calendar. Through TV programme 60 Minutes, Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos announced ‘Prime Air‘, a futuristic take on quick shipping – or in this case, what could be considered “ultra-quick” shipping. But fast shipping is just one half of the equation here; the other half is the fact that it’s made possible with drones. Yes, drones, like the one seen below.

The premise is this: You order a product on Amazon’s website, and a worker puts it into a plastic bin. Then, it goes onto a conveyor belt to travel along to a drone, which will then pick it up and fly off to its destination.

The below video shows off the entire process:

I admit that I felt a bit giddy after watching that, simply because the tech involved to make it all possible is nothing short of amazing. Of course, though, Amazon has many legal hurdles to battle with before this can become a reality, and FAA approval is a must.

Amazon has commented on the fact that safety is its biggest priority, though I have a gut feeling a lot of people are not going to like the idea of unmanned drones flying about – if one falls from the sky and hits something, that’s not going to bode well. To help prevent accidents, Amazon will have multiple redundancies in place, and I’m sure that poor weather would restrict operations for that period of the day.

Even if Prime Air is allowed to become a reality, there are other questions that arise. What’s to stop someone from shooting one of these drones out of the sky, for example, and then making off with the product? Or, what if it gets lost or is sent to the wrong address by accident?

It’s clear that Amazon has many risks to deal with, but one thing can definitely be said about Prime Air: Impressive.