‘Amazon tests drones in UK and the Netherlands’

Amazon is currently testing drones for its Amazon Prime Air delivery service in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, as well as in Canada. This was revealed by Amazon’s CEO and founder Jeff Bezos. This is interesting news, as the current legislature in the Netherlands doesn’t allow autonomous drones yet.

According to tech reporter Brian Fung, Bezos shared this news during a Washington Post event. He confirmed that Canada, the UK and the Netherlands are the countries where Amazon is testing its drones abroad.

Jeff Bezos just confirmed to a Washington Post town hall where Amazon is testing its drones abroad: Canada, U.K., Denmark.

— Brian Fung (@b_fung) 1 februari 2016

Correction: Just went back to the audio and Bezos actually said “the Dutch,” not Denmark. https://t.co/CsHRLBJQ14 — Brian Fung (@b_fung) 1 februari 2016

In the US, Amazon has trouble quickly rolling out its drone delivery experiments as local regulations are making this difficult. It’s why Bezos’ company has sent a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration in April last year asking to ease up on its drone testing regulations. The FAA does allow Amazon to test its drones, but it has placed several restrictions which make it harder for the ecommerce company to fully test the unmanned aerial vehicles.

Meanwhile, Europe has been more open about technological innovations. But funnily enough, the Dutch government recently announced it’s training eagles to take out drones that illegally take flight in their airspace.

No request to test delivery drones
According to Dutch tech website Tweakers, The Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate didn’t get any request from Amazon to test its delivery drones in the Netherlands.