Amazon hopes to deliver packages via drones within 5 years

December 1, 2013

Amazon Prime Air test flight (credit: Amazon)

Amazon hopes to use autonomous octocopter drones to deliver small packages to customers within 30 minutes, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced Sunday in a 60 Minutes interview with Charlie Rose.

Amazon says putting the new Amazon Prime Air service into commercial use “will take some number of years as we advance the technology and wait for the necessary FAA rules and regulations. … We hope the FAA’s rules will be in place as early as sometime in 2015.”

Here is footage from a recent test flight:

And Bezos on 60 Minutes: