Amazon has grown exponentially over the years, rising from a lowly eBay competitor to a major corporation offering a variety of services and changing the way people do business with each other. Amazon offers consumers the ability to buy and sell goods, and most importantly, it provides means for shipping and handling, taking the burden off of the consumer. As most services and industries move online, making their services as quick and efficient as possible, the business of shipping goods has has little innovation in comparison. Every part of the purchase and transaction can be handled online, but the physical item being purchased has to reach the consumer, and that cannot happen online. Amazon and other services have improved this part of the process, but it seems to still be lacking. Amazon recently made an announcement that could change this forever: shipping with drones.
Amazon’s CEO recently announced plans to implement unmanned drones for its deliveries. These drones would take the product from the shipping facility right to the door of the costumer, cutting the delivery time. This seems like something that is too good to be true, falling into the science fiction category, but the technology is already a reality.
Amazon could technically start this service as soon as it pleased, but several issues have been raised with the new service. Sending unmanned drones raises the risk of theft or hacking, as someone could knock the drone out of the air. The drone could be affected by weather and crash. Even with all of these issues, Amazon feels confident that it can do this, and it will be interesting to see how this affects the industry.