Image via Matternet/Drone pictured not the Swiss drone
Image via Matternet

Big companies like Amazon aren’t the only ones experimenting with drone delivery.

As AFP reports via Business Insider, this week Switzerland’s post office started testing drones for parcel delivery. The tests will run to the end of July, with regular drone delivery likely to start in five years.

You can see an amazing picture of the drone being set up for testing via the Washington Post‘s photos here.

The drones are made by California-based Matternet, and have “four branches with propellers…extending form a hollow ring the size of a toilet seat. A yellow box, bearing the postal service logo, is lodged in the middle.”

Hurrah. So if you’ve ever wanted your package delivered via toilet seat, I guess the Swiss are about to live that dream.

The drones can carry loads of up to 2.2 pounds more than 6.2 miles on a single battery charge, Swiss Post said in a statement.

Earlier this week, we wrote about the 500 or so U.S. companies — 13 in Washington — that now have the go-ahead for drones, including the aforementioned Amazon. It seems that, at least these early versions of drones, will mostly be used for parcel delivery, and aerial photography, video and surveying, especially when applied to the real estate business.

Just think: Someday that drone you order will be delivered by drone. Is that meta enough for you?

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