Amazon plans to roll out drone delivery to FIVE HUNDRED American cities by end of this year
Amazon has announced plans to expand its Prime Air drone delivery service to around 500 cities across the United States by the end of the year, according to reports. The move would represent a major scaling-up of the retail giant's drone operations, which have so far been limited to a small number of trial locations, and signals Amazon's continued push to speed up last-mile deliveries using autonomous aircraft.
Further specifics on the rollout, such as which cities are involved, the types of products eligible for drone delivery, or the technical and regulatory hurdles Amazon still needs to clear, were not detailed in the available report. Drone delivery has previously faced scrutiny over safety, noise and airspace regulation, factors that are likely to shape how quickly and widely the expansion can actually proceed.
- Amazon plans drone delivery expansion to about 500 US cities this year
- Marks a major scale-up from limited existing Prime Air trial areas
- Regulatory and safety hurdles could still affect the rollout's pace
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Amazon's Prime Air is the company's drone delivery service, which uses small autonomous aircraft to drop off parcels at customers' homes. It has been running only in a handful of test locations in the US since launching several years ago, so a jump to around 500 cities would be a significant step up in scale for the programme.
The plan fits into a wider industry race to speed up "last-mile" delivery, the final stage of getting a package from a warehouse to a customer's door. Amazon is not the only company pursuing drone delivery, and firms in this space generally need approval from US aviation regulators before they can operate more widely.
Drone delivery has previously run into concerns around safety, noise for residents, and rules governing shared airspace, all of which have slowed similar efforts in the past. These issues are likely to influence how such an expansion could unfold in practice.