Amazon completes it’s first autonomous drone delivery on American soil
Time to delivery is the new retail battlefield and Amazon is getting closer to realising its 30 minute goal.
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Griffin, M. (2017) 'Amazon completes it’s first autonomous drone delivery on American soil', 311 Institute, 30 March. Available at: https://www.311institute.com/amazon-completes-its-first-autonomous-drone-delivery-on-american-soil/ (Accessed: 1 October 2026).
Amazon, who last December became the first company to successfully complete the UK's first drone delivery, has been testing its Prime Air drone delivery drones for years now, but this week it finally made the leap that everyone's been waiting for and demonstrated the new service for real, in the wild, in the US. And Jeremy Clarkson was nowhere in sight...
In a first for Amazon, who unfortunately for them got beaten to the punch of being the first company to perform a drone delivery in the US by 7-Eleven who used a drone to deliver donuts to someone's back yard last year, a Prime Air drone dropped off some bottles of sunscreen for the attendees at the company’s invite only MARS (Machine learning, Automation, robotics and Space exploration) conference in California on Monday. And although the order was prearranged, the delivery itself was fully autonomous.
Amazon says it’s the first time its drones have flown for the public in America, with all other US flights taking place on private property.
"This flight brings Amazon one step closer to making 30 minute package delivery by drone a reality,” said Gur Kimchi, the Vice President of Amazon Prime Air, who then added, "this couldn't have been done without the assistance of the FAA.”
Kimchi raises a good point - while the technology, arguably, has been ready for some time now without the regulators approval this new mode of transport would simply stay grounded, and if Amazon ever stands a chance of scaling this up then they need the FAA's blessing. At the moment autonomous drone delivery is still prohibited in the US, and Amazon has complained that the regulatory system is too slow to adapt which is one of the main reasons why they've been trialling their autonomous drone delivery systems first in the UK where the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is much more accommodating. However, as drone deliveries, inevitably, become more common place there's another issue waiting on the horizon to be solved, and that's one that Singapore and the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are already looking into, and that's the issue of drone air traffic control.
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Time to delivery is the new retail battlefield and Amazon is getting closer to realising its 30 minute goal.
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Matthew Griffin Founder, 311 Institute
Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath."
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Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath." 15-time best selling author of the "Codex of the Future" series, Matthew is the Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm working with royal households, world leaders, G7, G20, and G77 governments, NGOs, and multi-national mid and mega cap firms to help them explore, shape, and lead the next 50 years of business and society.
An award-winning YouTube creator with over a million followers, with an unrivalled global reach and impact, Matthew is a highly sought-after international keynote speaker, lecturer, and mentor who collaborates with global leaders through the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to shape pivotal initiatives such as the UN’s AI for Humanity program, the United Nations Conference of the Parties (UN COP), and the World Economic Forum in Davos.
As the former Global Head of Cloud, National Security, and Enterprise Sales for companies including Atos, Dell-EMC, and IBM, Matthew has a proven track record of building multi-billion dollar business units and turning failing divisions into market leaders. His ability to identify, analyse, and communicate the implications of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends is unparalleled, and his insights are trusted by many of the world’s most respected organisations, including ABB, Accenture, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi, Coca-Cola, Dentons, Deloitte, Dow Jones, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, Siemens AG and Siemens Energy, T-Mobile, UBS, VISA, Walmart, Workday, Worldpay and many others.
Regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, Matthews mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.
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Source: first published by the 311 Institute on 30 March 2017. Cite as: Griffin, M. (2017). Amazon completes it’s first autonomous drone delivery on American soil. 311 Institute. https://www.311institute.com/amazon-completes-its-first-autonomous-drone-delivery-on-american-soil/
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