Amazon is now offering Drone prescription deliveries in College Station, TX. Customers will be eligible to receive air deliveries of “more than 500 medications” for common conditions such as flu, asthma and pneumonia. Texas A&M’s headquarters has enjoyed Prime Air drone deliveries of (non-medical) Amazon shipments since 2022.
The company says the medications will arrive within an hour of placing the order and there will be no additional fee to use the service. The drones fly between 40 and 120 meters, an altitude that Amazon says presents minimal obstacles.
After arriving at the customer’s home, the drone descends “slowly and safely” to a delivery point. Once the area is clear, he drops the pack and flies back to his base. Amazon says the automated devices’ cameras and other sensors are powered by a neural network that prevents the flying machines from colliding with people, pets and power lines. “Customers pick up packages without any interaction with the drone,” Amazon says.
“We are taught from the earliest days of medical school that there is a golden window that matters in clinical medicine,” said Dr. Vin Gupta, chief medical officer at Amazon Pharmacy, in a blog post published Wednesday. “That is the time between the time a patient feels unwell and the time he can receive treatment. “We are working hard at Amazon to dramatically reduce the golden window between diagnosis and treatment, and drone delivery marks an important step forward.”
Texas has established itself as a hotbed for early drone delivery tests. In addition to Amazon, Alphabet’s Wing began offering them in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, including through a partnership with Walmart. Amazon Prime Air also operates in Lockeford, CA. The company uses an improved drone model it introduced last year, which is lighter and can fly longer than its predecessor.
A report from earlier this year said Amazon had only made a few deliveries due to FAA regulations. In today’s announcement, Amazon said its drones “have safely delivered hundreds of household items in College Station since December 2022.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-now-offers-drone-deliveries-for-prescription-medications-in-texas-163730205.html?src=rss
