An Amazon delivery drone is on display at Amazon’s BOS27 Robotics Innovation Center in Westboro, Massachusetts, on November 10, 2022.
Joseph Prezioso | AFP | Getty Images
On a recent weekday morning, John Case heard a familiar hum in his quiet suburban home in College Station, Texas. He immediately recognized it as one of the AmazonPrime Air drones whizzed along delivery routes, unloading small packages of batteries, vitamins and dog food.
“It sounds like a giant beehive,” Keys, a semiretired orthodontist, said in an interview. “You knew it was coming because it was so loud.”
Case has lived in College Station for 40 years. Drones are a common sight when he and his wife take regular walks in the neighborhood. Case said nurses, police officers and firefighters who work night shifts say it disrupts their daytime sleep.
The noise complaints are just the latest challenge for Amazon’s drone program, which has struggled to get off the ground since it began testing deliveries in 2022. regulatory hurdlesmissed deadlines, and layoffs last yearProgress on the ambitious service has been halted in line with chief executive Andy Jassy’s wide-ranging cost-cutting efforts, which Conceive founder of amazon Jeff Bezos More than ten years ago.
College Station, about 100 miles northwest of Houston, has been a prime testing ground for Prime Air, as Amazon attempts to prove it can deliver packages to homes via drones within an hour. Rockford, Calif., south of Sacramento, was supposed to be another test market, but Amazon closed operations there in 2017. April. The company is seek approval Regulators require deliveries to begin in Tolleson, Arizona, west of Phoenix.
As Amazon prepares to scale up Prime Air and expand it to more regions, it’s running into another reason why it won’t be so easy. College Station Mayor John Nichols wrote in a July letter to the Federal Aviation Administration that residents of his city, home to Texas A&M University, were tired of flying close to home. Loud buzzing drone.
“Since settling in College Station, residents of communities near Prime Air facilities have expressed concerns to the City Council about drone noise levels, particularly during takeoff and landing and during some delivery operations,” Nichols wrote. “
Nichols’ letter is in proposal Amazon’s request to the FAA allows the company to increase daily flight deliveries to 469 flights per day from the current 200 per day. Amazon is asking to be able to operate between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m., rather than just during the day as currently planned, and expand its delivery area to 174 square miles from the current drone port perimeter. square miles.
Amazon’s request to the FAA comes a month after residents called on local lawmakers to intervene in the company’s expansion plans. At a June City Council meeting, Ralph Thomas Moore, whose neighborhood is “less than 500 feet from the launch pad,” played a chainsaw recording to illustrate the drone’s noise level.
Moore said at the meeting that if Amazon gets its way, it will conduct up to 940 combined takeoffs and landings so that the drones can deliver only one package at a time, weighing no more than 5 pounds.
“This is what Amazon is asking the FAA to approve,” he said. “This is a huge invasion of our personal space and has a significant impact on everyone nearby.”
College Station City Manager Bryan Woods told the meeting that city officials tested a Prime Air drone and found its noise level ranged from 47 to 61 decibels. according to Occupational Safety and Health Administrationchainsaws typically measure 125 decibels, and heavy equipment typically measure 95 to 110 decibels.
Prime Air is part of Amazon’s effort to find faster, more cost-effective solutions for the so-called last mile, the part of shipping that takes packages from warehouses to customers’ doorsteps. Proponents say drone delivery has the potential to offset the cost of maintaining a fleet of delivery drivers while reducing the need for gas-guzzling delivery vehicles. That’s assuming Amazon can turn it into a service for the masses.
May, Amazon achieved an important milestone At the time, the FAA said it would allow the company to fly its delivery drones over longer distances and without the need for ground staff to observe each flight. Amazon foreshadows The announcement added that this “lays the foundation” for the service to enter new markets.
Amazon spokesman Sam Stephenson told CNBC in a statement: “We appreciate the support of the College Station community and consider local feedback whenever possible when making Prime Air operational decisions. We are proud of what we have accomplished. Proud of thousands of deliveries as well as hundreds of customers we have delivered to.
“Excellent technology, wrong location”
Amina Ali Khan compared drones to “a fly flying past your ear over and over again and you can’t stop it.”
“It wakes us up and disrupts our ability to enjoy outdoor and even indoor spaces,” said Ali Khan, a physician who lives with her husband in a neighborhood a few hundred feet from Amazon’s drone airport in College Station.
Case said his neighbor complained that the sound of the drone made it difficult to enjoy working in the yard or sitting on the patio. Sometimes the sound is so loud that people inside can hear it. Case said he wrote a letter to the College Station mayor and city council about the incident.
When the city agreed to become a test market for Amazon, “I don’t think anyone really knew how noisy and annoying it would be,” Case said.
Others said the drone flew surprisingly low. One resident who heads a local homeowners association said Amazon told people in the neighborhood that the drones would fly at altitudes of 400 feet or more when operating.
But the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect privacy, said drones fly over residential properties at altitudes of 100 feet or less, making even lounging by the pool uncomfortable.
Amazon unveiled its latest delivery drone at the re:MARS conference in Las Vegas on June 5, 2019.
Amazon
Currently, Amazon delivery drones typically fly at an altitude of 160 to 180 feet, according to data the company submitted to the FAA.
Amazon says it plans to launch a smaller, quieter drone Called MK30which yes Once the company receives FAA approval, operations are expected to begin in College Station and Phoenix.
Stephenson said the MK30 “is designed to reduce the perceived noise of a drone by almost half.” It will also fly at a higher cruising altitude of 180 to 377 feet above the ground unless descending to drop a package, according to the FAA.
But many residents want Amazon to go further and leave their neighborhoods entirely. As concerns grew louder, Prime Air leaders held a Zoom meeting with College Station residents on July 24.
Matt McCardle, Prime Air’s director of regulatory affairs and strategy, said at the meeting that the company would not renew its lease in College Station and would move elsewhere before October 2025, according to a recording obtained by CNBC.
Amazon’s Stephenson confirmed that the company is “considering a variety of potential paths forward,” including the possibility of building alternative drone sites.
College City Councilman Bob Yancy said the company also agreed to reduce the number of flights per hour. He plans to propose that Amazon move its drone port to the former Macy’s store, now owned by the city and located in a nearby mall.
April, Amazon Indicates planned integration Prime Air is integrated into its same-day delivery network rather than building a standalone drone facility. That’s what the company is targeting in the Phoenix area, where its launch pad is expected to be Located at the same location as an Amazon warehouse called SAZ2. A few hundred feet away from the facility is a major neighborhood called Roosevelt Park.
Yancey said at the meeting that he still likes the program and is excited to have toothbrushes, cookies and aspirin delivered to his home within the hour.
He wants Prime Air to stay in College Station. But in order for it to be effective, he said, Amazon would have to make the drones less noisy or keep them away from residents.
“I think the title of the program is – great technology, wrong place,” Yancey said.
