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MM: Amazonโ€™s Patents A Delivery Drone That Self-Destructs

Amazonโ€™s latest approved patent is further proof of Amazonโ€™s need to prove just how safe their drones can be.

The future of drones has been a hotly contested topic throughout the whole of 2017, especially in regards to airspace safety and, of course, reliability.

And perhaps no other company is quite as keen as e-commerce behemoth Amazon to bring delivery drones into the mainstream. In fact, Amazonโ€™s first plans for delivery drones were unveiled 4 years ago, and since then creative patents such as lamp post drone docking stations and flying mothership drone warehouse have appeared.

Amazonโ€™s latest approved patent is further proof of Amazonโ€™s need to prove just how safe their drones can be. According to the US Patent Office, Amazonโ€™s latest design addresses what would happen in the event of a mid-air emergency. In addition to a flight controller, the drone will also have a fragmentation controller that would destruct the drone mid-air if necessary. The fragmentation controller would detect if something was wrong and would then determine a fragmentation sequence, which would indicate what parts of the drone should break off and release.

And while patents arenโ€™t the best indicator of what could come to pass later on, it does reveal that Amazon has a lot of work to do if it is to convince the FAA and consumers that its drones are both functional and safe.

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