Amazon.com consumers can expect to receive their packages in half an hour following the company's announcement Sunday drones would be used to deliver orders NBC News reported.
The company will also be able to transport a maximum five pounds with the device, which it already has an experimental model for. This amounts to 86 percent of its products.
"The hard part here is putting in all the redundancy, all the reliability, all the systems you need to say look, this thing can't land on somebody's head while they're walking around their neighborhood," Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos told NBC News Sunday. "(Then there are the national security implications which include) security vetting for certification and training of UAS-related personnel, addressing cyber and communications vulnerabilities, and maintaining/enhancing air defense and air domain awareness capabilities in an increasingly complex and crowded airspace. "Could it be, you know, four, five years? I think so. It will work, and it will happen, and it's going to be a lot of fun."
The new digs would be implemented in 2017, after the administration prints guidelines for pilots to get certified. Other guidelines could take as long as 2026 to get completed.
"The safe integration of unmanned aircraft into the NAS [National Airspace System] is a significant challenge," the United States Federal Aviation Administration told NBC News. "(Drones) have significantly increased in number, technical complexity, and sophistication during recent years without having the same history of compliance and oversight as manned aviation. (Then there are the national security implications) security vetting for certification and training of UAS-related personnel, addressing cyber and communications vulnerabilities, and maintaining/enhancing air defense and air domain awareness capabilities in an increasingly complex and crowded airspace. Putting Prime Air into commercial use will take some number of years as we advance technology and wait for the necessary FAA rules and regulations."
