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Everyone knows about Amazon’s plans to deliver Prime packages to nearby locations using drones, but it appears a regular old postal service has already achieved lift-off.
Gigaom reports that ‘France, La Poste’ has already performed successful tests allowing a small six-rotor drone to deliver parcels to location and safely return to the nest.
The Geodrone project is capable of delivering a 9lb package to a house of business up to 12 miles away. Once a postal worker loads the parcel onto the drone, it automatically takes care of the rest.
According to news reports in the country, the successful tests near the town of Pourrieres in Provence will result in a full launch that targets those in difficult to reach mountainous and waterside locations.
The French service has the luxury of eased drone regulations, compared with the reams of red tape Amazon is attempting to cut through with its planned Prime Air service.
Read more: Parrot AR Drone 2.0 review
The retailer, which promises GPS-enabled drone deliveries to those living within half an hour, must wait for the Federal Aviation Agency in the United States to approve the use of commercial drones before proceeding with its plans.
Amazon has resorted to testing the drones outside of US airspace, with Jeff Bezos admitting the service may launch in Europe before it can hit the US.
You can check out the Geodrone in the video below.