亚马逊试水无人机投递服务或遇阻

    然而，航天业内几乎没有人相信联邦航空管理局会在期限内放开限制。安全保障对监管和技术领域都是一项挑战，而联邦航空管理局尚未提供关于商用无人机的许可、监督、安全审查的指导方针，更不用说如何解决诸如可靠性和保险（到时会有很多很多的保险）等其他的责任问题。这让观望何种无人机能够在领空飞行的研发者们处于很不利的位置。

    不过根据贝佐斯的说法，亚马逊的研发团队正在努力把年费79美元的会员的送货时间缩减到半小时，至少在靠近物流中心的选定区域内实现这一点。贝佐斯在《60分钟》节目中的访谈短片中显示，包裹正在公司曲折的仓库中前进——那是地图上近100个亚马逊仓库中的一个，然后被放入特殊定制的黄色箱子内，通过传送带迅速来到等待着的亚马逊八旋翼直升机下。直升机抓紧箱子，冲向天空，穿过田园乡间，轻轻地将货物放在收件人的房间外面。

    实际上，无人机作为商业工具的过渡时期也许并不会这么轻松顺利，但是贝佐斯确信Amazon Prime Air这样的服务是未来的趋势。“它会派上用场的，它会成为现实的，而且会非常有意思。”（财富中文网）

译者：严匡正  

    However, few within the aerospace community are confident that the FAA will meet that deadline. Ensuring safety is both a regulatory and technical challenge, and FAA authorities have yet to provide guidelines on how commercial drone operators will be certified, policed, and audited for safety, not to mention how other issues of responsibility like liability and insurance (there will be lots and lots of insurance) will be resolved. That puts UAS developers at a disadvantage as they wait to see what kinds of drones will be allowed to fly in this new drone-enabled airspace.

    But according to Bezos, Amazon's R&D team is pressing ahead with plans to reduce delivery times for members of its $79-per-year program to just half an hour, at least in selected areas that are near enough a fulfillment center to allow for it. A short video screened by Bezos during the 60 Minutes segment shows packages snaking their way through one of the company's labyrinthine warehouses -- one of the nearly 100 that Amazon has scattered across the map -- before being deposited in special standardized yellow containers and sped along a conveyor belt until one comes to rest underneath the belly of a waiting Amazon octocopter. The drone latches onto the container and whisks it skyward, traversing an idyllic countryside before depositing it gently outside the recipient's house.

    In reality the transition to drones as commercial tools might not be quite so seamless and easy, but Bezos is convinced that services like Amazon Prime Air are the future. "It will work, and it will happen, and it's going to be a lot of fun."