Amazon's all-electric Prime Air drone is expected to start autonomously delivering packages to customers within months, in a bid to get orders to buyers faster than the one-day delivery service.
The news was announced yesterday at Amazon's inaugural re:Mars conference in Las Vegas, where the online retailer unveiled the latest design of its Prime Air drone.
Fully electric and autonomous, the drone can fly up to 15 miles and deliver packages weighing under 2.2 kilograms to customers in less than 30 minutes.
The hexagonal drone design was unveiled yesterday
According to Jeff Wilke, CEO of Amazon's worldwide consumer division, the company expects to pioneer the autonomous drone technology in time to deliver packages through the air to customers in the coming months. The exact date is still unconfirmed. The latest drone features a hexagonal design that is able to easily transition between its two modes of flight ? its "helicopter-like" vertical takeoff and landing mode and its airplane mode.
Safety was also a key focus in the latest developments. The drone uses the shrouds that protect its blades as wings, making it both safe and efficient in flight.
It is also controlled with six degrees of freedom, meaning it has six independent aspects of motion, as opposed to the standard four. This makes the machine more stable when operating in harsh weather conditions.
The drone takes off horizontally like a helicopter before flying like an airplane
"We know customers will...