Amazon Completes First Drone Delivery In 13 Minutes

Amazon’s been trying to make a successful drone delivery for three years now so it’s hardly surprising that you missed their first complete ride last week. Yes, it happened: Amazon Prime Air delivered its package in just 13 minutes. Delivery boy, who?! #actionmagic

The Amazon Prime Air service proved that drone delivery is more than theoretical. The company successfully sent a drone with a bag of popcorn and Amazon Fire TV at a location close to their UK center. The drone arrived safely at the destination in less than 15 minutes. This was just a trial but Amazon hopes to send drones on longer distances for up to half an hour flight time.

While longer distances are taken into account, the same thing can’t be said about loads. A drone as the one Amazon is testing now is unable to deliver more than 5 pounds on a transport. That means only light orders will be handled by Amazon Prime Air.

Even so, will Amazon send their drones to U.S. addresses? Not until regulations change. In UK, drones are allowed to fly beyond the pilot’s line of sight and pilots can control multiple drones at once.

That said, if you live in U.S., you are probably going to take advantage of a different Amazon service. Amazon Go is a shopping experience where customers don’t have to stand in lines or take the products at a cashier. The company hopes to open stores to the general public at the beginning of next year.