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Amazon Gets FAA Approval Allowing It To Expand Drone Deliveries For Online Orders (apnews.com) 23

Posted by msmash from the shape-of-things-to-come dept.
Federal regulators have given Amazon key permission that will allow it to expand its drone delivery program, the company announced Thursday. From a report: In a blog post published on its website, Seattle-based Amazon said that the Federal Aviation Administration has given its Prime Air delivery service the OK to operate drones "beyond visual line of sight," removing a barrier that has prevented its drones from traveling longer distances. With the approval, Amazon pilots can now operate drones remotely without seeing it with their own eyes. An FAA spokesperson said the approval applies to College Station, Texas, where the company launched drone deliveries in late 2022.

Amazon said its planning to immediately scale its operations in that city in an effort to reach customers in more densely populated areas. It says the approval from regulators also "lays the foundation" to scale its operations to more locations around the country. Businesses have wanted simpler rules that could open neighborhood skies to new commercial applications of drones, but privacy advocates and some airplane and balloon pilots remain wary.
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Amazon Gets FAA Approval Allowing It To Expand Drone Deliveries For Online Orders More

Amazon Gets FAA Approval Allowing It To Expand Drone Deliveries For Online Orders

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  • With 360 degree video feedback on a package drone, I don't see why this shouldn't be possible. You'd have to get a LONG ways away for the video lag to be a problem.

    Maybe they can give us a *real* hemisphere display next, created for their drone pilots but available for anybody- I imagine a monitor that looks something like those full chair hair dryers that used to be in 1950s salons.

    • So...for someone wanting to "get away" with flying over broader areas, etc....what's to keep them from disguising their drones as Amazon Drones, and just flying along with the fleet...joining out of sight, etc?
    • I thought that this was more for the life and safety issue. Drones, compared to even ultralights are small, small = hard for pilots to see... the drone will most likely not be capable of continuously monitoring a sphere around itself of maybe a mile in diameter, so that means that small aircraft pilots are going to be at risk, unless the drones are guaranteed to fly beneath 500 feet at all times... then only some small craft will be at risk. in this case I am thinking about a particular powered parachute pi

  • Private Property (Score:3)

    by sunderland56 ( 621843 ) on Tuesday June 25, 2024 @02:15PM (#64577483)

    Not found in TFA: will they be allowed to fly over private property? At what altitude?

    Following public streets to/from the warehouse would be the ethically correct thing to do, but would certainly be more expensive for Amazon.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by EvilSS ( 557649 )
      They will be flying below 400ft AGL, most likely in the 200-350ft until they arrive if I'd take a guess. And of course they can fly over private property. WTF is unethical about flying over private property?

      • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday June 25, 2024 @02:46PM (#64577601)
        Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • get anti drone weapons, either electronic, or a bolas that can be thrown or shot at the drone and it gets tangled up in the propellers

        • Well, I get C17's flying over my property at about 200'... a drone at that altitude not hovering is fine by me. The wankers zipping by at 100' are a different matter though.

          • Well, I get C17's flying over my property at about 200'... a drone at that altitude not hovering is fine by me. The wankers zipping by at 100' are a different matter though

            Until... the drone and the C17 try to occupy the same piece of air at the same time :-O

        • Wait until we tell you about satilites and aerial photography (those overhead views on Google maps are almost always aerial and not satilite) companies that fly around over your house all the time taking pictures.
      • well, there was this one pervert in Texas who would fly his drones over to the windows of underage young girls and take pictures of them sleeping... I figure that was unethical, though when a father of one of the girls went outside with a shotgun and shot the drone, after hearing his daughter screaming about the drone outside her window, he was arrested for shooting down the drone and made to pay for a new one.
        • I would argue that is not flying over property but loitering outside a home. And definitely not at hundreds of feet up.
          • yeah, when I read that story about that pervert using a drone to take pics of underage girls, and that the law (at that time, in that place) said that the father was in the wrong for shooting down the drone, all sorts of thoughts went through my head. I mean, I get it about willfully damaging/destroying another persons property, but... pics of underage girls? that's disgusting.

    • Private property has a Z axis?

      • Yes, and no. Technically you do not "own" the airspace above your property... but you do have an expectation of exclusive use. Usually up to about 200 ft in the USA.

        This is not for reasons of privacy, but for safety reasons. Things on your private property rarely exceed 200ft in height (and may require permits). FAA regulations keep overflights above 500 ft (mostly). This provides a cushion of safety.

        Amazon will be operating their drones in this "cushion zone" between personal space, and FAA controlled

      • i believe back in the olden days, it did and the limit was like 500 feet. but these days, it seems that it kinda doesn't... I mean, I am pretty sure I cannot build a cantilevered house that hangs over your property 5 feet above the tallest part of any 'stuff' in your property, But I am also pretty sure that a drone flying 5 feet above any 'stuff' on your property is legal.
  • So if Amazon can do this for profit, why can't I do it fun? Corporations are people, right, and I'm a person, so why not?

    Obviously this is a specious argument, but it makes the point that when corporate interests are involved the rules are always unequal. The rules always bend to corporate profit, and our rights and security as individuals are always the looser.

    So when one of these smashes into someones house, what then? Amazon will offer gift cards? Mandatory mediation paid for by Amazon? Take it or sue

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