Is Amazon’s Drone Plan Solid?

Right before the busiest shopping weekend of the year -may be that’s not a coincidence-, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos announced his last plan called Prime Air: small electric, autonomous octocopters that will deliver packages to their clients in 30 minutes or less. The company currently has 225 million customers around the world.

As Mr Bezos said in the CBS’s prime-time show 60 minutes, the initiative needs at least 4-5 years to be mature. There are several legal, privacy and logistical issues to be addressed. For example, the drones would need a camera to avoid the packages falling on people’s heads, and that rises even more complicated privacy issues. As the CEO acknowledged, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has yet to even write the rules on how to use unmanned aircraft for commercial use.

With an estimated worth of at least $25 billion, Amazon has quickly developed from its original mission as an online bookseller. It carries from household appliances to diapers and high-end fashion clothes. And its huge size gives Amazon an incredible influence on the market, such as Google’s or Apple’s. It is not difficult for them to get free advertising via news.

About the Author

Ana Fuentes
Columnist for El País and a contributor to SER (Sociedad Española de Radiodifusión), was the first editor-in-chief of The Corner. Currently based in Madrid, she has been a correspondent in New York, Beijing and Paris for several international media outlets such as Prisa Radio, Radio Netherlands or CNN en español. Ana holds a degree in Journalism from the Complutense University in Madrid and the Sorbonne University in Paris, and a Master's in Journalism from Spanish newspaper El País.

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