Amazon is to start delivering packages by drone this year.
The online retail giant will begin dropping off goods via robotic technology in the California town of Lockeford - where customers will be able to opt to have their parcels sent via drone through their Prime Air pilot - before rolling it to other locations.
A company blog post read: "The promise of drone delivery has often felt like science fiction. [But] later this year, Amazon customers living in Lockeford, California, will become among the first to receive Prime Air deliveries.
"Their feedback about Prime Air will help us create a service that will safely scale to meet the needs of customers everywhere."
Amazon says the drones will be set to be able to deliver items into customer’s back gardens of customers in the town, which has roughly 4,000 residents.
They also said:"Once onboarded, customers in Lockeford will see Prime Air-eligible items on Amazon. They will place an order as they normally would and receive an estimated arrival time with a status tracker for their order.
"For these deliveries, the drone will fly to the designated delivery location, descend to the customer's backyard, and hover at a safe height. It will then safely release the package and rise back up to altitude."
In addition, the robots will be able to go “beyond-line-of-sight”, as they will not need to be piloted by a person and instead rely on sensors to avoid obstacles, such as other aircrafts, people, pets and so on.
Jeff Bezos, the business’ founder and former CEO first floated the idea of drone deliveries in 2013, vowing it make it a reality within five years. In 2019, Amazon pronounced that they would be starting the programme “within months”.
Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported some of the alleged safety concerns with Amazon fighting back, asserting all their test flights were within “all applicable regulations”.
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