Jeff Bezos predicted Amazon would be making drone deliveries by 2018

Amazon’s
delivery drones have yet to materialise.
AP/Amazon

• In a “60 Minutes” interview in 2013, Amazon CEO Jeff
  Bezos showcased his firm’s new “octocopter” delivery drones,
  and predicted they could be operational in five years’
  time.
• It’s now the end of 2018, and Amazon’s delivery drones
  are yet to appear.
• To be fair to Bezos, he admitted back in 2013 that there was
  a lot of work that needed to go into making the drones
  safe. 
• Amazon said it still committed to making drone delivery a
  reality.

Back in 2013, Jeff Bezos predicted that Amazon’s drone delivery
service would have lift off in five years’ time. Fast forward to
the end of 2018, and the drones are yet to materialize.

Bezos,
now the world’s richest man, showed off Amazon’s “octocopter”
delivery drones to CBS’s “60 Minutes” in 2013. He said drones
would be able to deliver items up to five pounds in weight within
a 10-mile radius of an Amazon warehouse.

When asked how long it would take before the drones were up and
running, Bezos replied: “I’m an optimist… could it be four,
five years? I think so. It will work, and it will happen, and
it’s gonna be a lot of fun.”

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
Getty

To be fair to Bezos, he admitted back in 2013 that there was a
lot of work that needed to go into making the drones safe. “This
thing can’t land on somebody’s head while they’re walking around
their neighborhood,” he said.

And although the drones have not launched, that doesn’t mean
Amazon has halted development. In 2016,
Amazon started testing them out on UK sites, and in July
2017, a patent filing revealed it was working on a way for

drones to capture data by scanning people’s homes.

Read more:

Amazon is thinking about using its delivery drones to scan your
house to sell you more stuff

Industry leaders and analysts told AP that there are still a
few obstacles to overcome before delivery drones become a
commercial reality, including battery life and pushing through
new aviation legislation.

“We are committed to making our goal of delivering packages by
drones in 30 minutes or less a reality,” an Amazon spokeswoman
told AP, which was first to spot that Bezos pledge in 2013 is yet
to materialize.

Business Insider contacted Amazon to ask how the development of
its delivery drones is going.

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