AI Case Study
Amazon is testing its Prime Air drone delivery service promising to fly parcels to customers within 30 minutes of ordering.
Amazon has been testing drone delivery to enhance its Amazon Prime offerings through Prime Air, which will be able to autonomously fly packages to customers in less than 30 minutes, given they fulfil requirements, such as weight, size and distance of route.
Industry
Consumer Goods And Services
Retail General
Project Overview
"Prime Air is a delivery system from Amazon designed to safely get packages to customers in 30 minutes or less using unmanned aerial vehicles, also called drones. Prime Air has great potential to enhance the services we already provide to millions of customers by providing rapid parcel delivery that will also increase the overall safety and efficiency of the transportation system."
In 2016, the first ever drone delivery to a house in Cambridge, UK was completed.
In May 2017, the "drone dropped off a couple of bottles of sunscreen at Amazon’s invite-only robotic conference" in California.
"To qualify for 30 minute delivery, the order must be less than 5 pounds (2.25 kg), must be small enough to fit in the cargo box that the craft will carry, and must have a delivery location within a 10-mile (16 km) radius of a participating Amazon order fulfillment center"
Reported Results
Proof of concept; results not yet available
Technology
"Amazon Prime Air is planned to use multirotor Miniature Unmanned Air Vehicle (Miniature UAV) technology to autonomously fly individual packages to customers"
"This category is what Bezos, Chief Executive Officer of Amazon, calls a 'practical application of machine learning,' consumer-facing products or services that wouldn’t be possible without AI."
Function
Supply Chain
Logistics
Background
Benefits
Data