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Courtesy of AmazonAmazon CEO Jeff Bezos is looking to make deliveries significantly faster via a plan to use drones, he revealed on Sunday night’s 60 Minutes.
Bezos told correspondent Charlie Rose that a secret research and development project involves using “Octocopter” drones that will deliver packages to consumers’ homes 30 minutes after they make their purchases.
Bezos said the plan, called Amazon “Prime Air,” needs more safety testing; it also must go through FAA approvals. But the goal is to begin using the service as soon as four or five years from now.
According to CBS News, the 60 Minutes team had no idea that Bezos was going to reveal the delivery-by-drone project during their visit to Amazon’s offices.
“I only knew that there was a surprise coming,” producer Draggan Mihailovich told 60 Minutes Overtime of the big reveal. “I had no idea what it was. They kept saying over and over again, ‘Whatever you think it is, it isn’t.’ “
She also described the drones as giant, flying tarantulas: “They actually look like something out of a Philip K. Dick novel.”
