Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos told 60 Minutes that the online store is currently developing a delivery by drone system, called Amazon Prime Air. The demo video released by Amazon shows the ‘octocopter,’ a small aircraft, flying a package in a yellow Amazon container into the air and right to a customer's front door step.

Amazon Prime Air: Amazon Drone Delivery

Though the technology won’t be ready for another few years at least, Bezos seems certain that the Amazon Prime Air delivery system will, one day, be normal. The goal of Prime Air would be to deliver packages to Amazon customers in 30 minutes or less. At this time, the drones can only carry up to five pounds – 86% of the products Amazon sells on their website.

The drones can only deliver an item in 30 minutes or less within a 10-mile radius of an Amazon fulfillment center.

Bezos insists that this new delivery system, an all-electric system, is more environment-friendly than delivery trucks, calling Prime Air “completely green.” It also appears that the drones will fly completely unregulated or unmanned in the sense that there is no need for a worker to direct the drone from a computer once it has been programmed with the delivery coordinates.

“I know this looks like science fiction. It’s not,” Bezos said while unveiling the project.

Amazon Prime Air: Will It Be Safe Safe?

Futuristic and unsettling as it may sound, Amazon assures the public that safety is its number one concern.

“Safety will be our top priority, and our vehicles will be built with multiple redundancies and designed to commercial aviation standards,” the company says.

Amazon might be a few years away from completing its Prime Air system, but even if the project were ready for launch in the next year, Amazon would still have to wait until 2015 to begin using a drone delivery system, when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is projected to release guidelines for commercial drone use. As to an exact date when Amazon will be prepared to launch Prime Air, Bezos remains optimistic that drones will be making Amazon deliveries within four to five years:

“Could it be four or five years? I think so. It will work, and it will happen and it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Olivia Truffaut-Wong

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