In 2015, Amazon released a clip showing how it planned to deliver packages via drone.
Seven years later, drone delivery still feels like pie-in-the-sky. But that could change soon.
After announcing a pilot in Lockeford, California, for later this year, Amazon named its second test location — College Station, Texas (AKA Aggie country).
So how will it work?
Amazon will partner with Texas A&M University on the effort, and shoppers in the area will get free drone delivery on thousands of items, per CNBC.
To its credit, Walmart has been making deliveries by drone to select regions for some time, with plans to cover 4m households by year-end.
Videos of these deliveries are pretty entertaining:
- This one shows one drone’s loading process.
- This clip shows a botched delivery.
- And this one shows what might be the first-ever rotisserie chicken delivered by drone.
Despite progress on its drone efforts…
… Amazon has experienced some setbacks — including a crash that created a 20-acre brush fire in Oregon.
Further, it’s unclear if people actually want drone deliveries.
Lockeford residents have voiced concerns over privacy, and one even joked that he would use the drones for “target practice.”
