I stand by my earlier statements. Does anyone else in the US remember the Dominos proposal? If not, take a quick read here:
http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/dominos-tests-delivery-pizza-remote-controlled-drone-150259
Here's the problem, in only three letters: FAA.
But they can be bought off. No, they can't. Amazon might grease the way with money and clout, but they've got to prove three things, that I think might be difficult.
1) Commercial applications will not deliver items which may be dangerous. That powered sugar might be Ricin, the fertilizer is ammonium based and could be used as a bomb, and the children's toy is ticking. These problems will raise the ire of homeland security; comparing these entities to medical issues, if the FAA is a non-cancerous tumor Homeland security is a carcinoma as big as a watermelon.
2) Loss of goods. There will be people who want to steal these suckers. The embedded GPS is a decent touch, but a BB gun and metal box would allow a person to shoot the drone down, disconnect power, and quickly relocate. If one of those is just $300 in parts (an extremely low-ball estimate, given 4 times that much is a more reasonable assumption) that means a huge loss for Amazon.
3) Location. Amazon has fulfillment center near large cities, but not in them. This decision is based upon the cost of land, and other fiscal considerations. If these drones actually only have enough power for about 30 minutes of flight, that's 15 minutes max in any one direction. Unless you've got the ability to see your fulfillment center, you're unlikely to be in range of a drone.
I'd love to be proven wrong. I'm not sure I'll be so lucky. Whenever they've got longer ranges I'll be looking forward to this. I'm currently seeing this only as a gimmick that will pop-up every 6 months, and be destroyed as quickly. If anyone can actually make it real it will be Amazon.
They already said it wouldn't be for 5+ years from now and that the FAA currently bans it
I can see your point, but my argument is that it will never happen. This is the same PR dog and pony show that Dominos did, and it has obviously fell into obscurity based upon some of the other posters acting like this is something new. While slipping into obscurity is not a guarantee, it is likely given the track record of such ideas.