The filing also reveals that the shuttles and drones, as they fly deliveries around, could function in a mesh network, relaying data to each other about weather, wind speed and routing, for example, or beaming e-book content down to readers on the ground.
Given suitable software, unmanned Volocopters could become flying delivery vans, bypassing congested roads.
Flying delivery robots might sound a little far-fetched, but with Amazon having already introduced one-hour delivery, waiting hours instead of days for home-delivery could become the norm in the not-so-distant future.
Amazon's plans for autonomous flying delivery drones are so last year.
You know, the flying delivery drone that some thought was a massive joke meant for April 1st.
In wide-ranging discussions with some of the nation's leading luminaries, TC writers and editors covered everything from the technologies that will help cars to see, to the flying delivery drones that represent a potential future for logistics.
This means you can inspect an antenna tower with your drone, but there's no way Amazon or Google can fly a delivery drone this way.
Sydney firm Flirtey runs a flying book-delivery service.
And the drones are not far behind: Just recently, Amazon threatened to move its drone testing outside of the US, frustrated by the strict government regulations – another testament that flying pizza-delivery robots will soon be commonplace and cease to exist only in the realm of science fiction.
"Even if the Feds Let Them Fly, Amazon's Delivery Drones Are Still Nonsense," bleated Wired's Marcus Wohlsen.
The robots don't fly overhead, like delivery drones, risking the possibility of a collision, or payload damaged by a drop from the sky, of course.
