Delivery Drones: Cool idea, but will they be safe?

December 09, 2013, 9:28 AM GMT+0

Nearly half of Americans oppose allowing private companies to use drones to deliver packages, but most people think that Amazon will be able to deliver the technology within the next ten years.

Amazon.com is the largest online retailer in the world and their CEO, Jeff Bezos, recently made an appearance on 60 minutes to unveil his latest idea on how to get purchases to consumers: unmanned drones. If all goes to plan, the drones would deliver packages directly from the warehouse to the buyer's home in under 30 minutes. The project is called Amazon Prime Air and could become a reality as early as 2015. The project has caused a certain amount of anxiety in some quarters, but many people also think that the project will fizzle out and do not take it seriously.

According to the latest YouGov research, when presented with the possibility, many Americans (44%) do not think that private companies should be able to use unmanned drones for deliveries, while almost one third (31%) think that they should be able to.

Though Americans do not favor the use of unmanned drones to deliver packages, many (41%) aren't sure if it's necessarily a bad idea. Nevertheless, people are more likely to think that it is a bad idea (36%) than a good idea (23%).

There is some uncertainty about whether or not Jeff Bezos' proposed drones would be safe, too, with nearly half (47%) thinking that it would be unsafe to allow companies to engage in this type of transport. 18% say that the delivery drones would be safe.

When asked to describe the potential drone process of delivery, the words "cool" and "scary" were tied for first, being chosen by 31% of Americans, but 23% also said that the plan is 'goofy'.

While some may think that delivery drones will not arrive any time soon, 38% of Americans disagree and say that the drones will be delivering packages to our door within the next five years.

Full poll results can be found here.

Image: Getty Images

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