Feds Give Amazon Approval (Again) To Finally Test Delivery Drones In U.S.

It’s finally time for Amazon to take its delivery drones to the sky for testing with the government’s approval: While the Federal Aviation Administration already granted the company permission to test a PrimeAir prototype last month, Amazon had complained that the time the feds took to sign off on the testing rendered the earlier design obsolete.

This new approval [PDF] means Amazon — which had complained last month over the FAA taking more than six months since it’d originally petitioned for drone testing in July — will be sending its new designs up into the air soon, reports Reuters.

As long as Amazon’s drones stay under 400 feet and fly no faster than 100 miles per hour, Amazon is good to fly them outdoors for tests, the FAA says in its letter.

Amazon has been working on this idea to deliver packages to Prime customers by air with small, self-piloted aircraft since 2013, an effort that we can only imagine will finally set off the robot revolution and enslave humankind to machines ever after.

Amazon gets green light from U.S. regulators for new drone tests [Reuters]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist