Summary
Here's a summary of key points about the Amazon approval from the FAA for BVR Drone Delivery:
- Amazon's Prime Air has received FAA approval to expand its drone delivery operations beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) in the United States.
- This approval allows Amazon to serve more customers and scale its drone delivery operations, particularly in College Station, Texas.
- Amazon developed and demonstrated BVLOS technology, including an onboard detect-and-avoid system, to ensure its drones can safely navigate around obstacles.
- The company plans to integrate drone deliveries into its same-day delivery network later this year, deploying drones from facilities next to Same-Day Delivery sites.
- Amazon's goal is to deliver 500 million packages per year by drone by the end of this decade.
- The approval follows similar exemptions granted to other companies like Alphabet's Wing.
- Amazon is ending drone deliveries in Lockeford, California, but plans to begin operations in Tolleson, Arizona later this year.
- Other companies like Walmart, Walgreens, and DoorDash are also working on drone delivery services.
- Safety remains a top priority for Amazon as it expands its drone delivery capabilities.
This approval marks a significant step forward for Amazon's Prime Air service and the broader commercial drone delivery industry in the United States.
Amazon drones: Prime Air expands drone deliveries after FAA approval
The approval will allow Prime Air
to further expand drone deliveries and lays the foundation to safely
scale operations to more locations in the U.S.
The
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires that all commercial
drone operators are able to maintain a line of sight to their drones
until it approves a technology that can safely enable drones to fly
beyond visual line of sight. Beyond Visual Line of Sight, known as
BVLOS, is a term used in aviation to describe flying a drone where the
remote pilot can't see it directly with their own eyes. Instead, a
remote pilot would rely on instruments or technology to monitor and
control the drone at all times.
When
it comes to commercial drones, regulators around the world have been
working on creating new rules and authorizing technologies that will
allow more complex drone operations, like package delivery, to safely
scale and operate beyond the line of sight of a remote pilot.
We’re
excited to share that the FAA has given Prime Air additional
permissions that allow us to operate our drones beyond visual line of
sight, enabling us to now serve more customers via drone and effectively
expand and scale our drone delivery operations. To obtain this
permission, we developed a BVLOS strategy, including an onboard
detect-and-avoid technology. We’ve spent years developing, testing, and
refining our onboard detect-and-avoid system to ensure our drones can
detect and avoid obstacles in the air.
We
submitted crucial engineering information to the FAA, including our
onboard detect-and-avoid capabilities. This included how our system was
designed, how it is operated, how it is maintained, and ultimately how
we validated that the system performs to specified requirements. We then
conducted flight demonstrations in the presence of FAA inspectors to
show our system works in real-world scenarios—we flew in the presence of
real planes, helicopters, and a hot air balloon to demonstrate how the
drone safely navigated away from each of them. We also provided
extensive analysis and test data for our technology that further
validated the safety of our system. After reviewing this information and
observing the technology in action at our test site, the FAA provided
Amazon Prime Air with BVLOS approval.
This
new authorization and new permissions allow us expand our delivery area
in College Station, Texas. It means more Amazon customers than ever
before will be eligible to choose from thousands of items for drone
delivery, including household essentials and beauty and drugstore
products. Later this year, drone deliveries will begin integrating into Amazon’s delivery network,
meaning drones will deploy from facilities next to our Same-Day
Delivery sites, which will provide Amazon customers with faster delivery
of an even greater selection of items. Safety is our top priority
Deploying
this onboard technology allows us to expand the reach and capabilities
of our delivery services while maintaining our same stringent commitment
to safety.
We
received an Air Carrier Certificate from the FAA in 2020 that allowed
Amazon to operate as an airline and deliver small packages via drone.
With that certification and the newly granted permission to fly beyond
the line of sight, we’re laying the foundation to scale drone delivery
for customers.
Now
that we’ve been granted these permissions by the FAA, we’ll immediately
scale our operations in College Station with our current MK-27 drone to
reach customers in more densely populated areas.
Our
vision has remained unchanged since we started working on Prime Air: to
create a safe and scalable way to deliver packages to customers in 30
minutes or less using highly autonomous drones. To achieve our goal of
delivering 500 million packages, per year, by drone, by the end of this
decade, we knew we had to design a system capable of serving highly
populated areas and that was safer than driving to the store. It’s taken
years of inventing, testing, and improving to develop these
breakthrough technologies, and now, on the heels of regulatory approval
and cutting-edge technology, we’re excited to launch this next chapter
for Prime Air.
Amazon has received approval from the U.S.
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to fly its delivery drones longer
distances, the company announced
on Thursday. Amazon says it can now expand its Prime Air service, which
uses delivery drones to fly individual packages, to more customers.
The FAA requires that operators maintain a line of sight to their
drones until it approves technology that can safely monitor and control
them without visuals. Amazon says it spent years developing Beyond
Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) technology for its drones to ensure they
can detect and avoid obstacles in the air.
The company showcased the technology for FAA inspectors to
demonstrate that its drones can safely navigate away from planes,
helicopters and hot air balloons.
The announcement comes after Alphabet’s Wing received an FAA exemption last December to fly its drones beyond the visual line of sight.
In a press release,
Amazon said the approval allows it to, “serve more customers via drone
and effectively expand and scale [its] drone delivery operations.”
Amazon is going to start by expanding its drone delivery operations in
College Station, Texas to reach customers in more densely populated
areas. The company also plans to integrate drone deliveries into its
same-day delivery network later this year.
Amazon says it needed the FAA approval to achieve its goal of using
drones to deliver 500 million packages per year by the end of this
decade.
The announcement comes a month after Amazon confirmed that it was ending Prime Air drone deliveries in Lockeford, California.
The town was the company’s second U.S. drone delivery site, after
College Station. Amazon didn’t offer details about why it was ceasing
drone delivery operations in the area, but did announce that it was
going to begin drone deliveries in Tolleson, Arizona later this year.
Amazon isn’t the only tech company to operate drone deliveries, as Walmart
introduced Wing drone deliveries to limited Superstores last year.
Other companies working with Wing for drone deliveries include Walgreens and DoorDash.
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