Amazon Wants to Create Self-Destructing Drone Hubs

It is no secret that Amazon plans to utilize drones in many of its everyday operations to help streamline the delivery process that they are known for. Don’t be surprised to start seeing more and more drones delivering Amazon packages to people’s homes directly. Drones are able to move packages much faster than post office workers can, and because of this, Amazon is just one of many corporate giants looking into drone delivery.
Last summer, Amazon was able to design a drone hub to use in the future; they hope to use the hub as part of their drone strategy, allowing the hub to be a charging dock and safe-haven for drones in between deliveries. The drone hub will be hovering in the air, so extra care needs to be taken in its development, because something that heavy flying above ground poses a threat to whatever is beneath it in case of a malfunction.
Amazon wants to look into developing technology that will cause the drone hub to self-destruct, should an emergency arise, in order to protect whatever is on the ground beneath it. Amazon wants to design a drone hub that can break apart into smaller pieces, resulting in impacts that would result in less damage to property and people. Additionally, they hope to program a computer in the hub that can analyze situations as they arise, so that self-destruction only happens if it’s absolutely necessary.
Amazon submitted the patent back in 2016, and the patent reveals that the hub would ideally have a large area beneath it so that the explosion from self-destructing would happen in areas with very few inhabitants or occupied property. The pieces of the hub would hopefully fall on empty areas, such as fields, water, or empty property. Amazon’s aim is to lessen the risk of harming property and people in the event of hub self-destruction.
Amazon’s drone service, Amazon Prime Air, hasn’t been implemented across the United States, it is currently being tested in the United Kingdom. Other large companies have begun implementing drone technology in their work, as well; soon, we hope to see drones helping encourage drivers to drive electric cars by providing drivers with mobile drone refueling systems.
Even Facebook wants to get in on the drone craze. They hope to send drones to isolated areas so that people in those regions can have access to the internet, via wireless signals provided by the drones. Facebook wants to make the internet more accessible to people, and drones can help them achieve this.
2017 was a big year for drone technology, and in the future, drones will only become more popular. You can expect to see drones integrated into more aspects of your daily life, and drone technology will continue to advance. And like all technology, as drones continue to advance and increase in popularity, more companies will integrate them into their workflow.