![]() It can fly out-of-sight for 15 miles, Amazon says. That particular drone model gets loaded at the warehouse, rises vertically through the roof, then flies horizontally at a height under 400 feet. One of those prototypes can be seen in this video. On its Amazon Prime Air site’s FAQ, the company says it’s evaluating over a dozen prototypes of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and that the look and characteristics of the drones will evolve over time. How to make it safe for one person to operate multiple automated drones.How to ensure sure that drones can detect obstacles and avoid bumping into things.How to safely operate drones beyond an operator’s line of sight, both in rural and suburban areas.There are three main issues with drone deliveries that Amazon’s looking to crack: It opted to test out its Amazon Prime Air delivery in the UK, where rules are more flexible than other countries. The company announced the program on Monday. One employee recalled seeing another hold down the "approve" button on their computer to mark footage as all-clear, regardless of whether there were hazards in it.Amazon has partnered with the UK government to test drone deliveries. That division, which was responsible for reviewing footage for potential threats to train the automated drone's hazard-detection system, could be dysfunctional, workers said. Prime Air has previously faced criticism from employees who say the pressure from executives to meet ambitious goals for drone delivery has at times superseded safety considerations.Įmployees in Prime Air's UK division told Wired in 2021 that safety sometimes seemed to be an afterthought. A year ago, executives concluded the seven years Prime Air had spent on R&D had failed to produce "a delivery service that could be safely operated over populated areas," Insider previously reported. When Amazon launched its drone program, called Prime Air, in 2013, then-CEO Jeff Bezos presented a vision of a fleet of drones able to fly packages to customers within just 30 minutes and said he anticipated the drones would be delivering packages within five years. If Amazon prioritized safety "as much as they like to tell the media, that team wouldn't have gotten laid off." (Employees interviewed for this article asked not to be named in order to discuss internal matters. ![]() ![]() "I think it says what their priorities are," said one current employee. The drone safety team cuts, combined with stepped-up pressure to meet delivery targets, have generated new concerns about the potential dangers the program poses and thrown into question Amazon's stated commitment to safety, the employees said. CEO Andy Jassy has justified the layoffs as positioning the company to better face " the uncertain economy." More than 18,000 people have been let go in rolling cuts since last autumn. Now, barely a month after starting deliveries to real customers in those towns, Amazon's drone safety teams in Lockeford and College Station have been decimated by the company's far-reaching layoffs, four current and former employees told Insider.Ĭuts have also deeply affected the safety team in Amazon's Pendleton, Oregon, test site, which has seen a string of crashes, including one in 2021 that sparked a 25-acre brush fire, the employees said.Īmazon is in the midst of its largest-ever layoffs. In Lockeford, Amazon hosted a "Welcome Picnic," inviting residents to "learn more about how our drones can safely navigate through the sky and conveniently deliver packages right to your backyard," according to a picnic invitation seen by Insider. "Safety is of the utmost importance" to Amazon, a company representative said at that Texas meeting. The possibility of Amazon's nearly-90-pound drone "falling from the sky onto our home, onto our car, onto our children" was nerve-wracking, College Station resident Amina Alikhan said at a public meeting last summer.Īmazon did its best to assuage those anxieties. When Amazon announced last summer that the towns of College Station, Texas, and Lockeford, California, would be its first test sites for package delivery by automated drone, some residents expressed concerns. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. ![]()
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