Have you heard of Octocopters? They are Amazon’s latest idea: unmanned drones created to deliver goods to customers. Able to deliver packages weighing up to 2.3kg to customers within 30 minutes of them placing the order, this service may sound like science fiction, but it’s actually called Prime Air and exists for real. Or at least it will. Although it would boost efficiency and growth for the world’s largest online retailer, it has not yet been approved by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and could take up to five years to get started. The FAA has previously approved the use of drones for police and government agencies, issuing about 1,400 permits over the past several years, but this is different as it is for civilian use.

To deliver goods to people’s homes in residential areas, the drones must fly over densely populated towns and cities, something that today’s regulations prevent. The rules are there to minimise the risk of injury to people on the ground, as these machines do not have the awareness of the environment to be able to avoid flying into people. There are also security issues to consider - with no one to guard them, the aircraft and package could be captured and stolen. As Amazon waits for permission from US regulators, as do others (civilian air space is expected to be opened up to all kinds of drones by 2015 in the United States and by 2016 in Europe), the commercial use of drones opens up a pandora’s box of worrying questions and concerns.