Amazon said it will expand Prime Air drone delivery to about 500 US cities and towns by the end of the year, up from 11 locations today. The rollout adds new states including Illinois, Georgia, Ohio, Idaho, and New York, but each community still requires local regulatory approval before drones start flying overhead.
Amazon said on Wednesday it will expand its drone delivery service to reach hundreds of US cities and towns by year end, up from 11 locations where it currently operates. The company plans to bring the service to customers in Illinois, Georgia, Ohio, Idaho, and New York, on top of the seven states that already have access.
A broader map of delivery hubs
Amazon currently flies drones from 11 locations, including Papillion, Nebraska, and Ruskin, Florida, and is planning to add Syracuse, New York, and an area near Cleveland, among other places. A single hub can reach multiple towns within a roughly 7.5-mile radius, which is how the company gets from 11 locations to about 500 locales. The company says any item weighing 5 pounds or less that fits in a large shoe box qualifies for drone delivery, covering most of the packages ordered on Amazon each day.
Orders arrive in as fast as 30 minutes, with most landing around 60 minutes after checkout. A delivery costs $4.99, or $2 less for Prime members, and Amazon waives the fee on orders of at least $50.
Local approval remains the bottleneck
The expansion still depends on winning over individual communities. Amazon must seek regulatory approval in each area it enters, often through local council hearings and resident feedback, even though Amazon has said it already holds Federal Aviation Administration approval to fly in most of the country. At a planning and zoning meeting in Nampa, Idaho, in May, Amazon executive Sam Bailey faced about an hour of questions on noise, safety, and drone logistics, including concerns about bird safety, before the board voted unanimously to approve the service.
Bailey said the drones would be audible for about 20 seconds while descending and departing, at a noise level lower than a lawnmower. According to Reuters: "It's a brief experience." He added that drone delivery is useful for older adults and for parents whose kids suddenly spike a fever.
A decade in the making
The push follows more than a decade of development since founder Jeff Bezos first showed off octocopter prototypes in 2013 and predicted the service would launch within four to five years. Amazon has redesigned the aircraft several times since then; the current version, the MK30, hovers a few feet above the ground and releases packages rather than landing. Amazon says it relies on multiple independent systems, including a Detect-and-Avoid feature, to keep the drones operating safely in shared airspace.
Walmart has also expanded its own drone delivery service, adding 100 more stores in cities such as Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Orlando, and Tampa over the past year.
Sources: Business Insider, Investing.com
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