Don’t look now, but Amazon’s beleaguered drone delivery program, Prime Air, is finally beginning to show signs of life. The company announced today that customers in Lockeford, California, will be among the first in the US to see Amazon drones delivering packages in their backyards.
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Amazon’s drone delivery program is again under the scanner with a new Business Insider report highlighting how an experimental Prime Air drone set several acres of a wheat farm ablaze when it crashed in eastern Oregon during a test flight last summer.
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In May 2017, Amazon announced the opening of a new Prime Air Development Center in Clichy, France, to boost research and development into its drone delivery program. Today, the dozen-strong team focusing on drone navigation stands reassigned to new roles.
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Amazon’s drone delivery program, Prime Air, is shuttering part of its operations in the United Kingdom, a new Wired report reveals. The company has already fired more than 100 employees in the UK, while many others are being transferred abroad.
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Amazon’s Prime Air program hopes to deliver packages to its many customers fast — but just don’t expect it anytime soon. Business Insider reports internal conflict, high turnover, and launch delays have put the drone delivery program in upheaval.
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If you’ve wondered where Amazon finds room for all its drones and drone supplies (more than 60,000 in its latest search results), wonder no more. A new distribution center under construction near Syracuse, New York, has room for drones, and probably other stuff as well. Take a look at this drone video of the massive Amazon warehouse
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Amazon has let go of some of its research and development and manufacturing employees for its drone delivery service in favor of outsourcing. The company has already signed two deals with companies to manufacture some of the parts used in the custom delivery drones.
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Autel Robotics is giving customers up to $106 off its Autel EVO 2 8k and EVO 2 Pro 6k drones as a part of Amazon Prime Day. It’s not the most amazing discount, but is a welcome price reduction for anyone looking to get an EVO 2 drone.
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Last week Amazon’s Ring announced its Ring Always Home Cam drone security camera with a varying degree of pushback from the public. Should you be concerned about letting in the flying security camera in your house or is it just an overaction?
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“Always Home Cam” isn’t Amazon’s delivery drone but will deliver piece of mind… in 2021
Today at its new product event, Amazon debuted a new $249 drone that’s job is to patrol your home when you aren’t there. Will people invite Bezos Inc drones into their homes?
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Amazon appears to be building a flight simulator, according to a new patent, to ensure its delivery drones don’t crash while out on deliveries. The flight simulator is meant to help Amazon program its drones to better navigate dropping off parcels at customers’ houses.
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Amazon‘s latest drone patent points at a new way of using a drone that doesn’t involve delivering packages. Amazon wants to replace ski lifts. The drone uses a rope to pull people up the side of a mountain, just like Casey Neistat did in this video in December 2016.
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Ingenuity can be turned to many purposes. The same tech that builds drones can also make medical equipment. So is the lesson from Amazon Prime Air, which recently started mass-producing face shields for frontline COVID-19 medical workers.
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Ex-Boeing executive David Carbon will spearhead the Amazon Prime Air delivery by drone service. In 2013, Jeff Bezos famously announced that deliveries by drone would be a common sight in a matter of four to five years, and that hasn’t exactly panned out yet. But the online retailer is still focused on making parcel deliveries by drone a reality.
On Monday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) proposed new safety standards for specific drones for package deliveries in the Federal Register. The move is seen as a crucial step in allowing routine package deliveries by drones in the not too distant future.
In a new series by DroneDJ, we put the spotlight on commercial drone pilots to showcase how they use their unmanned aircraft in their day-to-day business operations. Today we feature Sparky’s Video Productions, whose owner Sparky Sorenson recently was allowed to record the Amazon Prime Air ribbon-cutting ceremony and the first departure. Be sure to watch the video as it has some really amazing drone footage.
Amazon is littered with cheap drones. Here’s a list of what we think are the best drones that are available on Amazon today. They include all-time favorites such as the DJI Mavic 2 Pro, DJI Mavic 2 Zoom, DJI Mavic Air, DJI Mavic Mini, Parrot Anafi, Autel Evo, and even the Ryze Tello. Check it out below, before or after you have had your Thanksgiving dinner.
This morning the Wall Street Journal has a detailed article about deliveries by drone. They take a closer look at Amazon, Wing Aviation and Uber Technologies. For some reason, UPS with their Matternet drones are not getting that same amount of attention in this article, even though they recently were awarded a Part 135 certification by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
When you think about Amazon
Drones have been flying for the last century, but delivery drones from Amazon have recently come to life. Amazon wants to deliver your packages by drone, lowering costs, and speeding up deliveries. Amazon continues to invest heavily in its delivery drone project, creating prototypes and testing deliveries in multiple locations.
Last day! E-commerce giant kicked off Amazon Prime Day with some of the best DJI deals on products such as the Mavic Air, Ryze Tello, Goggles RE, Ronin-S, Osmo Action, and Osmo Pocket camera. Some of the biggest savings are on the DJI Mavic Air ($120 off), an ultra pocketable 4K DJI drone, or the Ronin-S ($100 off). See below for all the details, pricing, and links to the DJI products.
There are about 175 hours left to take advantage of these and other deals on Amazon.
According to an article on Bloomberg, Amazon wants to hire more than 2,000 workers in the UK for its latest technology ventures. Amazon is reportedly looking to hire software developers, engineers, and data scientists, 170 of whom will be employed in development centers in London, Cambridge, and Edinburgh. They will be focused on developing technology for Alexa, Prime Air drone deliveries, and video service.
Amazon delivery drones might be used to spy on your home. An Amazon patent filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office on June 12, 2015, and granted June 4 of this year, indicates that the e-commerce giant is planning to use its network of drones to form a neighborhood watch system and keep an eye on your home. The company calls it “surveillance as a service” and it would have its delivery drones record footage of your home when they are out delivering packages.
As Walmart and Amazon are battling it out for supremacy in the fast-changing retail world, Walmart is on track to file more drone patents than Amazon for the second year in a row. According to research by the accounting firm BDO Walmart has filed 97 new drone applications with the World Intellectual Property Organization since July 2018. In the year before, Walmart applied for 57 patents compared to Amazon’s 54, according to an article in the Financial Times. More interestingly though, if you look at the 2017/18 time frame, DJI filed more drone patents that Walmart and Amazon combined.
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