The December 60 Minutes segment on Amazon.com's (AMZN 2.77%) plan to have drones deliver packages created a lot of excitement. How likely is this to happen, and when? What else will we see with unmanned technology?
To find out, Motley Fool analyst Rex Moore interviewed one of the world's foremost experts, Michael Toscano, president of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International. AUVSI is a nonprofit dedicated to advancing unmanned systems and robotics, and it serves thousands of members.
In this segment, Toscano explains how the interest of a major corporation such as Amazon in the possibilities of unmanned flight brings the technology and its potential uses into the public eye, and encourages discussion of other applications as the technology matures.
A full transcript follows the video.
Michael Toscano: Actually, I think it's a very positive one because, from an educational standpoint, people are talking about it now.
There's more dialogue that's taking place, and I think there's a validation because Amazon -- which is a very reputable organization, one of the biggest we have in the world -- understands that this is a delivery capability, it's a better way of doing business.
As a delivery system, whether it's a package of something you ordered that weighs less than five pounds, or if it's vital medicine that needs to get to people, or food, or a cell phone -- when you look at a natural disaster that could take place -- people are now going to get a better understanding that when we perfect this, or when we get it to a more mature state, that we have now, at our fingertips, a technology that allows us to do things that we either couldn't do before, or now can do them in a much safer, more efficient, and more economical way.
