Amazon can now deliver orders by drones to more customers after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved its request to operate drones beyond visual line of sight, known as “BVLOS.” Later this year, Amazon will expand beyond Texas and California to launch drone delivery in Arizona, as it had announced last month. It will be the first time Amazon drones will launch from a Same-Day delivery site – until now, they’ve been launching from dedicated Prime Air sites.
The latest development demonstrates Amazon’s long-term thinking. Eleven years ago, founder Jeff Bezos appeared on 60 Minutes to reveal his drone delivery plans, which were novel at the time and were greeted with some skepticism.
In Thursday’s announcement, Amazon said that to obtain FAA permission, it developed a BVLOS strategy that included 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.”
The company provided additional information about how it had worked with the FAA, including conducting flight demonstrations in the presence of inspectors to show the drones worked 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.”
Amazon said FAA approval will help it serve more customers and expand its delivery scale starting in College Station, Texas. It’s using drones to deliver medications “quickly and affordably” through Amazon Pharmacy in select areas, it noted.
It also revealed that it’s working on a new MK30 drone, “an advanced aircraft unlike any other. It is smaller, quieter, and can fly further than our current drone. It will also fly in rain.”
