Amazon MK30 drone. Image credit Amazon
Amazon’s much delayed drone delivery service has reportedly suffered another setback after the service was paused in parts of the United States.
Bloomberg reported that Prime Air drone package deliveries, first launched in December 2022 in the West Valley Phoenix Metro Area of Arizona and College Station, Texas, have been paused.
In 2024, Amazon had halted drone deliveries in California, but it also launched the service in Phoenix, Arizona.
The suspension of the service comes after two of Amazon’s new and lighter MK30 drones allegedly crashed in December at the Pendleton, Oregon airport it uses for testing.
One of the drones reportedly caught fire after it fell to earth – which if accurate could be a serious liability issue for Amazon if it happened at a customer’s location.
Amazon had announced in December that it was testing its next generation MK30 drones, stating that the “brand-new MK30 drone underwent rigorous safety and regulatory tests to ensure it delivers double the range and half the noise than any previous Amazon delivery drone.”
According to Amazon, the MK30 drone underwent an aerospace design and verification process, and the machine can travel two times farther than Amazon’s previous drones, and is significantly quieter (noise can be an issue if flying over in crowded neighbourhoods).
The idea is that if a user purchases an eligible item weighing five pounds (2.2kgs) or less, the MK30 drone “can drop off your purchase at designated areas near select addresses in 60 minutes or less.”
According to the report, Amazon had been testing the new MK30 drones during light rain. It seems the software giant has blamed a software issue for the crashes when it was drizzling.
Indeed, the firm reported stated the crashes weren’t the “primary reason” why it’s putting its drone deliveries on hold.
Amazon spokesperson Sam Stephenson told Bloomberg that it’s “currently in the process of making software changes to the drone” and that the operational pause is voluntary.
After the updates are completed, Amazon still has to secure approval from the Federal Aviation Administration before it can resume its operations.
“Employees at the drone sites, who were told of the action Friday, will continue to be paid during the pause,” Stephenson told Bloomberg.
In addition to the crashes in December, two MK30 drones collided during another test a few months earlier.
Stephenson reportedly stated that Amazon expects to see incidents like these during testing and that they help the company improve the service’s safety.
The concept of drone deliveries has been under development at Amazon for over a decade now.
Amazon began plotting to use drones for deliveries, ever since first mooting the idea back in 2013.
The plan was that drones could deliver packages weighing up to 2.3 kilograms.
Amazon at one stage also patented the idea of a floating mothership retail hub (a warehouse in the sky) for drone deliveries.
Amazon had already tested drone deliveries in the United Kingdom.
This occurred when Amazon began testing its delivery drone service in Cambridge back in July 2016.
A package was delivered, by drone, in just 13 minutes.
Now nearly a decade later, it seems that Amazon intends to expand its drone delivery service into the United Kingdom and Italy.
In August 2024 the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had selected Amazon (and others) to conduct UK trials of drone deliveries to remote locations, as well for inspections of infrastructure and emergency services.
In December 2024 Amazon said it had successfully completed an initial test of using delivery drones in Italy in San Salvo, a town in the central Abruzzo region.
It is understood that Italy is to be the first European country where the e-commerce giant plans to introduce the service.
The company had previously said it hoped to start using drones in Italy and in Britain in late 2024.
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