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AMAZON’S FLYING DRONES, which will deliver parcels, are “more like horses than cars,” according to Paul Misener, Amazon’s vice president for global public policy.

In an interview with Yahoo Tech, Misener said that the drones use “sense-and-avoid technology,” which is useful when delivering parcels to houses.

“The [drones] have what is called sense-and-avoid technology,” he said. “That means, basically, seeing and then avoiding obstacles”. To explain this further, Misener compared the drones to a living animal.

“These drones are more like horses than cars – and let me explain why,” he said. “If you have a small tree in your front yard, and you want to bang your car into it for some reason, you can do that … But try riding a horse into the tree. It won’t do it. The horse will see the tree and go around it”.

The genesis for the drone idea, which was announced in an episode of the “60 Minutes” TV show, came from Misener’s son.

“After I joined Amazon in early 2000, my young son was sitting on my lap,” he said. “We ordered something from Amazon, and he hopped off and ran up to the front door, waiting for the brown truck to show up on the spot”.

Amazon has been working to deliver parcels faster and faster, starting out with Prime, which delivers packages within two days in the US, then next-day delivery, next-hour delivery, and finally Prime Air, which claims to deliver packages in 30 minutes.

- Max Slater-Robins

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