Only in specific zones
According to Amazon, it is currently working on the eighth and ninth generation drones, which should be able to reach 50 miles per hour (80 km per hour) according to files the FAA has received. They can carry up to 2 kilograms, which means that 86 % of Amazon products can be transported this way.
As Amazon is a commercially-focused company, it has to test indoors or in another country as there are only 6 specific zones in the United States that are available for company-focused drone tests. Amazon has now asked for an exception to that rule, specifically for its new Seattle research facility so that it can run test flights there as well.
Amazon has been trialling Amazon Prime Air, a drone-operated delivery service to get packages to the customer’s doorstep within 30 minutes if they live within a 16 km radius from a distribution centre, since last year. The legal implications of the system currently seem to be its biggest hurdle.
