Amazon’s 30 minute drone delivery has distance, weight limits

As advanced as the drones of the future which deliver our online purchases to us sooner than ever before are, there will be some limitations. Despite Amazon's drones being designed to operate efficiently in various environments, chances are they won't be able to travel much more than 10 miles from their home-base and will be restricted to carrying packages that weigh less than five pounds.

So yes, you will need to live within a small catchment area  around an Amazon warehouse in order to take advantage of fast drone delivery whenever it begins and you will need to order small products too. Apparently though, that's not so much of an issue, as the vast majority of Amazon sold products are small and weigh very little, according to VP of global public policy at Amazon, Paul Misener.

In a chat with Yahoo news, he said that Amazon has to make the range over 10 miles, but didn't disclose how far he expected it to be. Considering the average battery life of drones, it wouldn't be too surprising if it was around that figure. The reason it's up in the air right now though, if you'll pardon the pun, is because Amazon is working on a few different prototype ideas, despite it looking rather finalised in a recent video. [yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXo_d6tNWuY']

Other questions related to how the drone would make a delivery if you aren't in. Apparently they'll just drop it off in a garden or other secure location that you have pre-selected. The flight itself should be relatively safe too, as Amazon is in discussion with the FAA and other relevant authorities about creating a drone airpsace at certain heights.

There's even little fear about them being shot at, as when asked about that, Misener replied that people could shoot at courier trucks already and don't.

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KitGuru Says: Do you live close enough to an Amazon warehouse to take advantage of air-based deliveries? If so, would you pay a premium for it?

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