Amazon Filed Patent For Underwater Warehouses

Amazon is no stranger to quirky patents. The latest one to make headlines involves the construction of underwater warehouses to keep merchandise #objectmagic

Earlier this year, online retailer Amazon filed a patent for Aquatic Storage Facilities. Basically, they came up with a way to move their depots underwater. As outlandish as it sounds, Amazon’s way of getting packages from underwater is, at first look, viable. The company suggests using lakes, reservoirs and pools created especially for this project to hide these warehouses.

Items would get there either by being dropped with a parachute or sent from trucks. Of course, every single parcel would be protected from the damaging effects of water by being placed in watertight boxes before submerging them. Every single one would feature an air canister, too. Once an item is requested by a customer, the air canister would inflate a balloon to help the item come to the surface. There, it would be met by retrieval teams (comprised by drones, too).

Amazon argues that this storage idea would use space efficiently and take some tasks off the shoulders of humans (like walking “several thousand feet” for one package).

The Aquatic Storage Facilities idea is just one of several patents Amazon has filed recently concerning alternative warehouses. Another one would regard warehouses for drones, once the UAVs in Amazon’s service will be used for standard deliveries and increase significantly in number.