Amazon unveils a new delivery drone with more autonomy and noise cancellation, among other things.
Amazon recently suspended testing of its sidewalk delivery robot Scout and made other decisions, suggesting it wants to limit its experimental plans. Today, it may seem that Prime Air delivery drone development is still very active, as the e-commerce giant has just unveiled a preview of its next generation drones.
Amazon unveils new delivery drone
The MK30 has been thought and designed to be lighter than the current model called the MK27-2. It will still have six rotors like its predecessor, according to images provided by the company, but the hexagonal frame appears to be gone.
The US e-commerce giant is expected to start drone deliveries in College Station, Texas, and Lockford, California before the end of the year to help it gauge customer interest in such aerial deliveries, right to their garden. Amazon uses the MK27-2 for these tests. The MK30 won’t be in service until 2024, but the company says it has longer range than the MK27-2, higher temperature tolerance, and can fly in light rain. In addition, the Prime Air flight team has developed new propellers that will apparently reduce the noise of this new drone by about 25%.
Increased range and noise reduction, including
The company’s drones are not very noisy. According to the FAA’s assessment for the College Station test, the noise from the MK27-2 should not cause irritation or “affect the behavior of wildlife.”Amazon considers reducing the noise of its drones a very important engineering challenge and is convinced that all the qualities of the MK30, taken together, will allow customers to “choose drone delivery more often.”The company did not reveal a specific schedule for expanding drone shipments in its announcement, but promises to make the service available to “more customers in the coming months and years.”