Amazon has shown off its Prime Air drone delivery service in the US, dropping off bottles of sunscreen to attendees of its own robotics conference in Florida.
The company has previously demonstrated the airborne drone delivery system in the UK, where it’s being trialled in Cambridge — much to the irritation of some locals.
The demo was captured on video by The Verge, showing the quadcopter lowering over 20 seconds or so to a marked point in the grass, landing and releasing an Amazon parcel, before taking off to the sky — as onlookers record the proceedings on smartphones.
The report noted that Amazon said it was the first time one of its drones had dropped off a package in public, rather than on private property, thanks to assistance from the Federal Aviation Authority.
So far, US regulators haven’t given Amazon or its drone delivery rivals permission to fly parcels through the air, with most deliveries to date limited to carefully controlled trials.