Mail delivery by what???????

I had already started writing my entry for today when low and behold, the radio had a really awesome piece on package delivery in Switzerland.   The Swiss Postal Service is working with a company in California to test out having drones deliver packages.  Yes you read that right,  Drones!

The idea is that you have a landing pad located somewhere safe for the drone to land and deliver the package.  The drone actually has a cargo container that contains the package.  Once the drone lands, the recipient opens the container and removes the cargo before the drone takes off again. 

The Swiss Postal System is not looking at the drones to deliver all packages because the drone's cargo hold is only large enough to carry two apples.  Due to the terrain, there are three situations the postal service is interested in using drones.

First, many places can easily be cut off from the rest of the world due to the snow covered terrain.  A drone would allow people to receive items of immediate need.

Second, people who live in isolated areas could receive their regularly scheduled medications.

Third, drones could act as medical couriers such as carrying lab samples.

They stated that this type of delivery would not become a reality till 2020 but in the meantime they are testing the system out to see how well it would work.  I assume they will test the drones out in all sorts of conditions to see if they work in snowstorms with cold winds, rain, etc.

I am geeky enough to think this is absolutely cool.