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It’s been another busy week for Amazon, with the etailer announcing a Kickstarter web store and entering talks with the UK Government over its drone deliveries.
Amazon Kickstarter collection lets customers buy brand new crowdfunded tech
Amazon Launchpad has announced the creation of a Kickstarter Collection web store, featuring more than 300 Kickstarter products available for purchase on Amazon.com.
Startups featured in the Kickstarter Collection include Piper, Zivix, Prynt and MudWatt, among others. The newly crowdfunded products including electronics goods, wireless accessories, toys and games as well as other tech devices.
“Working with Kickstarter is a great way for us to hear directly from customers what products they care about, since they truly hold the power to bring these products to life,” said Jim Adkins, Amazon VP.
“We created the Amazon Launchpad program a year ago to serve creators, inventors, and startups. Our goal is to enable them to reach Amazon’s hundreds of millions of customers and to overcome one of the biggest challenges any startup faces – bringing their product to market successfully.”
Since launching a year ago, Amazon Launchpad has worked with over 100 venture capital firms, startup accelerators and crowdfunding platforms to help more than 1,000 startups launch products in the US, UK, China, Germany and France.
Amazon in talks with UK Government over drone deliveries
Amazon has partnered with the UK Government to explore the steps needed to make the delivery of parcels by small drones a reality.
The talks will see Amazon trial new methods of testing its delivery systems.
A cross-Government team supported by the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has provided Amazon with permissions to explore three innovations: beyond line of sight operations in rural and suburban areas, testing sensor performance to make sure the drones can identify and avoid obstacles, and flights where one person operates multiple highly-automated drones.
Drone deliveries for PC components? Don’t be so sure
Amazon says its work with the Government will help it understand how drones can be used safely and reliably in the logistics industry.
It will also help identify what operating rules and safety regulations will be needed to help move the drone industry forward.
“The UK is a leader in enabling drone innovation – we’ve been investing in Prime Air research and development here for quite some time,” said Paul Misener, Amazon’s VP of global innovation policy and communications.
“Using small drones for the delivery of parcels will improve customer experience, create new jobs in a rapidly growing industry, and pioneer new sustainable delivery methods to meet future demand."
“We want to enable the innovation that arises from the development of drone technology by safely integrating drones into the overall aviation system,” added Tim Johnson, CAA policy director.
“These tests by Amazon will help inform our policy and future approach.”
