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Amazon made its first successful delivery by unmanned drone to a customer this month.
The online retailer delivered an Amazon Fire TV stick and popcorn Dec. 7 in a rural area near Cambridge, England, just a few miles from an Amazon fulfillment center, according to The Wall Street Journal. The process, from order to delivery, took 13 minutes, the article says.
Amazon has been developing its delivery-by-drone service, known as Prime Air, for about three years, with the goal being able to “safely get packages to customers in 30 minutes or less,” the Prime Air website says.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration updated its commercial drone guidelines to include a stipulation that a drone must remain within eyesight of its licensed operator, which would make package deliveries from warehouses difficult in the U.S.
The Civil Aviation Authority in the U.K. exempted Amazon from a similar regulation, allowing the company to perform tests in the rural area of Cambridge for several months leading up to the first delivery, The New York Times reports.
Amazon drones use GPS systems to find their way to delivery sites, and they land on landing pads that customers place on their properties.
Currently, the drones can only deliver packages in the 5-mile delivery area in England by daylight and in clear weather, and packages must weigh 5 pounds or less, The Wall Street Journal reports.
About 87 percent of items sold on Amazon.com weigh less than 5 pounds, according to The Wall Street Journal.
