1 Small Delivery for a Man, 1 Giant Leap for Amazon, Drones

The delivery drones are still in the 'beta' phase

Drone delivery has begun.

On Dec. 7, a bag of popcorn, along with an Amazon Fire TV stick, left a Cambridge warehouse in the U.K. and 13 minutes later, both were accepted by an Amazon customer, one of two who had agreed to be part of the test program.

A video posted by Amazon shows a fully autonomous drone, no humans involved, taking off from the warehouse and flying over fields to deposit the package just outside the customer's home.

Amazon, with drones, aims to make deliveries in 30 minutes or less. Packages can only be delivered during the day in clear weather and must weigh five pounds or less. According to The Washington Post, which along with Amazon is is owned by Jeff Bezos, about 86 percent of Amazon's packages are under the five pound weight limit. 

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Last summer, Amazon received permission from the U.K. to test such drove deliveries. The delivery drones are still in the "beta" phase. 

Amazon plans to expand the trial to hundreds of users near its Cambridge facility.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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