Amazon’s drone delivery program has reportedly been rife with technical issues, high employee turnover, and safety concerns. (Though of course the latter two can only be expected when you mix drones with Amazon. 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 summer. This prompted federal regulators to second-guess the integrity of the project. 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.
(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.
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