Amazon completes its first drone delivery, in England

[WASHINGTON] Amazon said Wednesday it completed its first delivery by drone, in what the global online giant hopes will be a trend in automated shipments by air.

The delivery to an unnamed customer near Cambridge, England, was announced in a tweet by Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos.

Amazon, which has been testing drone deliveries in the US and elsewhere, has on several occasions complained that the regulatory environment in the United States for these automated deliveries is more cumbersome.

In its video, Amazon noted that it is working with two customers receiving drone deliveries in the Cambridge area and soon hoped to expand to "dozens" near its warehouse.

Amazon is not the only group working on drone deliveries. Google parent Alphabet has a similar project known as Wing and some reports say US retail behemoth Wal-Mart is also studying drone deliveries.

In the US, the first commercial drone delivery was made in July when convenience store 7-Eleven, with drone startup Flirtey, transported a chicken sandwich, hot coffee and donuts to a customer near Reno, Nevada.

AFP