Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) on Friday has officially begun Prime Air drone deliveries to customers in Lockeford, California, and College Station, Texas.
Customers in Lockeford and College Station, once “onboarded,” will be able to order from a list of Prime Air-eligible items on Amazon. Much like other app-based delivery services, they would receive an estimated arrival time for their order with a tracker for the live status. But for Prime Air deliveries, the drone will fly to the designated dropoff location, descend to the customer’s backyard, and hover at a safe height as it releases the package.
“Our aim is to safely introduce our drones to the skies. We are starting in these communities and will gradually expand deliveries to more customers over time,” Natalie Banke, Amazon Prime Air spokesperson said in a statement.
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The e-commerce giant aims to use feedback from the initial rollout of the service to help streamline its operations and scale the service across the United States. Amazon is one of few companies in the US to have received Part 135 certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to fly delivery drones.
In May, Walmart (NYSE: WMT) announced that it would be expanding its drone delivery service to cover 4 million households across six states, making it possible for qualified customers to get their orders in 30 minutes or less. The service is currently available in Dallas, Orlando, Phoenix, and Tampa.
Alphabet’s (Nasdaq: GOOGL) drone delivery service Wing is currently available in Lusk, Ireland, Dallas, Texas, and the Gold Coast region in Australia, where it serves an area of about 70,000 people.
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