Amazon Hit by Drone Crash Problems

(Photo: Oxana Melis/Unsplash) Remember when everyone swore Amazon’s zillions of products would soon be delivered via drone? (Everyone including Jeff Bezos himself?) Well, it isn’t just you who hasn’t been receiving their discounted merchandise by drone over the last few years. Amazon has apparently been struggling with the delivery program of its dreams, despite the significant amount of time, money, and manpower it’s already sunk into the project. 

Amazon’s drone delivery program has reportedly been “beset by technical challenges, high turnover, and safety concerns.” That’s according to a new investigation by Bloomberg. Internal company documents reveal several safety features failed and caused a brush fire when Amazon took its delivery drones for a test drive last year. Amazon responded by pressuring its employees to resolve the safety failings and get the program back on good terms with regulators, which in turn influenced employees to cut corners, risking their personal safety on the job. This echoes a common criticism of Amazon in other contexts—namely, that the company prioritizes speed over all other factors, including personal safety.

(Photo: Adrian Sulyok/Unsplash)

Amazon denies that its drone tests have resulted in any injury or harm, but interviews with 13 current and former employees say otherwise. “Someone is going to have to get killed or maimed for them to take these safety issues seriously,” one former drone project manager told Bloomberg after he was fired for flagging safety issues to his manager. David Carbon, a former Boeing employee who was hired in 2020 to run Amazon’s drone program, is said to have continuously put “speed over safety” and retaliated against employees who voiced safety concerns.

The drone delivery program has eaten more than $2 billion in development costs since its origination. Even so, Amazon customers are far from having their purchases dropped on their doorsteps via drone. The FAA requires companies with commercial drone delivery plans to conduct test flights in variously-populated areas to prove their programs’ safety and real-life viability. With five crashes within a single four-month period last year, however, things aren’t looking great for Amazon’s program. 

Once approved, Amazon drones should be able to deliver packages up to weighing up to 5 pounds within half an hour of purchase. Each drone will have a reach of up to 7 miles from an Amazon delivery station, of which there are over a thousand across the country.  

Update: Amazon followed up with ExtremeTech after this story was published. The company disputes claims that its safety standards are lax and points to the fact that it received Part 135 certification from the FAA in August 2020 as proof of its commitment to safe flying. Part 135 is a rigorous set of rules that a commercial charter company must follow and we acknowledge Amazon’s receipt of this certification. Given that Amazon’s program is still under development, however, it is perfectly possible that the company has received certification from the FAA and some employees have raised concerns about safety and the reasonableness of the product development cycle.

Now Read:

• Amazon’s Internal Chat App Will Ban Words Like ‘Union,’ ‘Pay Raise,’ and ‘Restrooms’
• Amazon Accused of Lying About Use of Seller Data
• Amazon Luna Cloud Gaming Now Available in the US