Amazon drone deliveries. Novel idea but will they leave the package with a neighbour if you’re out?

The answer of course is they will not. The plan is to just drop the package at your doorstep. Tricky if you live in a multi-story block of apartments.

Amazon may be testing the idea of delivering packages by drone but don’t expect the service to start anytime soon. There are plenty of tough legislative hurdles for the drones to navigate.

At the moment drones must not be operated within 50 yards of a building or a person, or within 150 yards of a built-up area. Drones also have to remain in line of sight and within 500 yards of the pilot.

But Amazon is keen to run delivery drone tests here in the UK. Why not the USA? Could the reason be that legislation in American is tougher than here? Possibly.

The US Federal Aviation Administration will only allow commercial drones to fly when the combined weight of the drone and its load is less than 55lb. Drones must also stay within line-of-sight of the pilot and each drone must have its own pilot. That’s a lot of skilled personnel that have to be trained and registered. And commercial drones in the USA can only fly during daylight.

But its not just the legislative hoops that Amazon has jump through, there are more practical reasons that make drone delivery difficult.

Comments have already been made about thieves stealing packages from front doorsteps. Why would they stop at just the package when they could help themselves to a free drone?

And what about things like weather conditions that could bring down drones, let alone bored teenagers who see drones as great targets for catapult practice?

But mischievous youngsters are not the major threat to drone deliveries. It’s malicious hackers that could cause serious operational problems. And let’s face it if highly sophisticated military drones are susceptible to hacking what chance has a delivery drone?

Amazon has said that experiments will look at drones carrying deliveries weighing a maximum of 5lb. Packages of that size make up about 90% of Amazon deliveries. Now work out how many deliveries a day Amazon UK makes, which must run into tens of thousands, and that’s a lot of drones buzzing around out there.