Amazon Unveils New Prime Air Delivery Drone [Video]

Amazon unveiled a new Prime Air Delivery Drone at the re:MARS Conference in Las Vegas today. The drone will reportedly start delivering packages to customer 'within months'.

We’ve been hard at work building fully electric drones that can fly up to 15 miles and deliver packages under five pounds to customers in less than 30 minutes. And, with the help of our world-class fulfillment and delivery network, we expect to scale Prime Air both quickly and efficiently, delivering packages via drone to customers within months.




The drone features a hybrid design that can do vertical takeoffs and landings like a helicopter but is also aerodynamic like an airplane. It can easily transition between these two modes - from vertical-mode to airplane mode, and back to vertical mode.

For safety, the drone is fully shrouded. The shrouds are also the wings. Controlled using six degrees of freedom, it's more stable and capable of operating safely in more gusty wind conditions.

Artificial intelligence technologies are used identify static and moving objects coming from any direction.

We employ diverse sensors and advanced algorithms, such as multi-view stereo vision, to detect static objects like a chimney. To detect moving objects, like a paraglider or helicopter, we use proprietary computer-vision and machine learning algorithms.


When approaching the ground a safe area to land is determined using explainable stereo vision in parallel with sophisticated AI algorithms trained to detect people and animals from above.

A customer’s yard may have clotheslines, telephone wires, or electrical wires. Wire detection is one of the hardest challenges for low-altitude flights. Through the use of computer-vision techniques we’ve invented, our drones can recognize and avoid wires as they descend into, and ascend out of, a customer’s yard.

Check out the drone in the video below. You can signup for a free trial of Amazon Prime here.