A drone carrying a package sails through the air, touching down to make a delivery right on a customer's doorstep.
Amazon.com Inc. wowed the world in 2013 with a video purporting to show what the future of the delivery industry would look like. But are we any closer to that now? The answer seems to be no — at least in Japan.
The nation is set to take a step forward in the sector this year as the government prepares to deregulate aviation rules so delivery firms can use drones in rural areas. But people in the industry have voiced concerns that safety, noise and other issues are likely to prevent so-called multicopters from making doorstop deliveries anytime soon.