Amazon's drone delivery service Prime Air will be launched in California this year

In 2013, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos revealed the firm was developing a 30-minute drone delivery service. At the time, Bezos predicted that the service would not be available until sometime in 2015 at the earliest. Now, nearly ten years after that initial announcement, Amazon claims its Prime Air program is almost ready.

Starting later this year, Amazon will begin drone deliveries in Lockeford, California, according to a blog post published by The Verge. In a trial run, the firm's unmanned aerial vehicles will carry "thousands" of different items directly to customers' backyards in the region. “Their feedback on Prime Air, with drones flying packages into their yards, will assist us in developing a service that can safely scale to meet the demands of consumers everywhere," Amazon added.

Amazon still needs to obtain Part 135 FAA certification before the pilot can start. On that front, Amazon is playing catchup with rivals such as Walmart and Wing, both of whom have announced recent growth in their respective pilots. It's also unclear what items will be available through the service. Soon, it'll be clear what they are.

Amazon claims that the more intricate drone service it wants to establish is one of the reasons it has taken so long to bring Prime Air to this stage. The firm stated that it has spent the last decade developing an "industry-leading" navigation system that will enable its drones to avoid both stationary and moving targets. It hasn't been without difficulties, however, since establishing that system. According to reporting from Bloomberg in 2021, five of the company's drones crashed over a four-month period. Amazon's announcement today would indicate that it is confident enough in the system to put it into action.