After nearly a decade of preparation, Amazon began its first real drone deliveries in December in two cities in California and Texas. By mid-January, deliveries had only been made to seven homes by the Amazon drones, according to The Information.
One of the reasons is that the US aviation authority FAA must give permission to Amazon on a case-by-case basis. The FAA has imposed several strict restrictions on the online store giant. Amazon’s requests to ease the restrictions have been “largely rejected,” according to The Information.
Check for nearby cars
For example, Amazon employees must check that no cars are driving on surrounding roads before a delivery drone is allowed to fly. That’s because the Amazon drones are relatively heavy.
The lighter delivery drones from Wing, Flytrex and Zipline have previously been allowed by the FAA to fly over roads.
Drop from a height of 3 meters
Amazon customers who want to receive an order by drone need a backyard where their packages can be delivered. The drone can also only carry a box of a certain size. He drops the box into the garden from a height of about 3 meters. As a result, many products are not suitable for drone delivery.
Amazon tells The Information it meets all safety standards and the company “welcomes the rigorous evaluations by the FAA.”
Big round of layoffs
Amazon’s drone division would also have been hit hard by Amazon’s major round of layoffs, which saw 18,000 job cuts. As a result, the delivery teams at the two locations would have been halved. According to a spokesman, the layoffs will not affect the company’s drone plans.
Noise from Google drones
Google sister company Wing has already made more than 300,000 drone deliveries in recent years. Wing operates in regions in the US, Finland, Ireland and Australia. In the latter country, the delivery drones previously led to complaints about noise nuisance.
