Media Ate Up Amazon Prime Air Drone Publicity Hoax

In December of 2013, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced that the company plans to create a new delivery service using unmanned aerial vehicles – drones – called Prime Air. The devices were labeled as “octocopters”.

Bezos told 60 Minutes that the drones would be ready to go into action in about four or five years, and of course when federal FAA regulations governing commercial use of drones changes. Coincidentally, FAA regulations patently lack much of anything governing the use of commercial drones. However, at the end of December, the FAA selected six states as test sites for the use of such drone systems.

In its first of many conflicting statements, Amazonissued a public statement at the end of December that Amazon was, “…ready to enter commercial operations as soon as the necessary regulations are in place.” This conflicted with CEO Jeff Bezos prediction of four to five years.

In reality, the technology isn’t even “science fiction” as the company quipped. It’s an utterly ridiculous concept with so many practical problems that most technically-minded observers have already brushed off the announcement as nothing more than Read more…