France Becomes First Federal Postal Service to Use Drones to Deliver Mail

The drones used in the French postal service experiment have the capacity to fly up to 12 miles carrying about two pounds maximum, going around 19 miles per hour. They are also equipped with parachutes for safe emergency landing in case something disrupts the flight. The eventual goal is to reach rural or mountainous regions that are otherwise difficult and expensive to get to using cars.

To address fears of malfunction and injury, the drone employs redundant electronics and an "automatic parachute [for] detection of anomalies during flight and automatic deployment in case of fall."