Watch Jeremy Clarkson Talk Amazon’s New Drones

Video: Not content with just starring in a new Top Gear Top Gear-esque car show on Amazon Prime, Jeremy Clarkson is putting the good word out about Prime Air, Amazon’s they-really-want-it-to-be-legal drone delivery service. A new drone stars in this particular video, with a mix of vertical and horizontal propellers that makes it look like some kind of cardboard version of the V-22 Osprey. Amazon says that it, and its other drone friends, could deliver you a parcel in 30 minutes or less, over a 25 kilometre range from its depot — if the government allowed it.

In the video, Clarkson posits the kind of 30-minutes-or-less delivery problem that we’ve all faced; a family about to head out to their daughter’s football match is stuck with one boot chewed to pieces by the family dog. Cue Amazon tablet, cue Amazon delivery montage. The Prime Air drone shown in the video above is able to take off vertically from a delivery centre, start up a horizontal propeller to fly forwards — Amazon stresses this is all actual in-flight footage, not a simulation — and travel up to 15 miles before landing on a lawn or other “landing area” free of “potential hazards”. From there, it drops off your parcel and takes off again to return to base.

Amazon’s spiel: We’re excited about Prime Air — a future delivery system from Amazon designed to safely get packages to customers in 30 minutes or less using small unmanned aerial vehicles, also called drones. Prime Air has great potential to enhance the services we already provide to millions of customers by providing rapid parcel delivery that will also increase the overall safety and efficiency of the transportation system. Putting Prime Air into service will take some time, but we will deploy when we have the regulatory support needed to realize our vision.

Questions, comments, tips? You can find me on Twitter at @csimps0n.


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