Amazon says it will begin drone deliveries in California

Online retail giant Amazon announced Monday that it would begin Prime Air deliveries with drones this year in California.

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Amazon said its customers in Lockeford, California, will be among the first to see the drones in action in a news release.

The company said it had been working on the technology for nearly 10 years, working to create a drone that can safely deliver packages in less than an hour.

“Lockeford has historic links to the aviation industry. The community boasts one of the early pioneers of aviation — Weldon B. Cooke, who built and flew early planes in the early 1900s — as a former resident. Now, over a century later, residents will get the opportunity to sign up for free drone delivery on thousands of everyday items,” the company said in a news release.

Amazon’s website describes Prime Air as “a future delivery system from Amazon designed to safely get packages to customers using autonomous aerial vehicles, also called drones,” and designed to deliver packages weighing up to five pounds.

Participating customers will see that their items are Prime Air-eligible on the website and will be able to place the order as they normally would, Amazon told CNN’s MarketWatch. The drones fly up to 50 miles per hour at an altitude of up to 400 feet.

Amazon said that its drones have a “sense-and-avoid” system that allows it to navigate around both stationary and moving obstacles. That system not only allows it to avoid things in the air like aircraft and buildings, but also makes sure the drone has a delivery area that is free of humans, animals or other objects.

>> Read: Walmart expands drone-delivery service to reach 4 million households

Retail giant Walmart has its own drone delivery service that will expand to six states before the end of the year, the company announced in May. Walmart’s DroneUp delivery network will expand to 34 sites in Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Texas, Utah and Virginia.

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