The FAA greenlights Amazon drones for longer-distance delivery, as retailers bring speedy shipping to the skies
Five-pack of TP… in 15 minutes. The FAA has cleared Amazon’s drones to make longer-distance deliveries. Since 2020, Amazon’s drone-delivery biz (Prime Air) has had to follow an FAA rule requiring commercial drones to fly within range of the operator’s view. Amazon had made only 100 or so Prime Air deliveries as of May 2023. To scale up, it’s spent years working on Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) tech, which companies need to get FAA approval for if they want to fly drones beyond a pilot’s sight. It’s a safety thing: BVLOS helps drones avoid planes, helicopters, and even hot-air balloons.
Outta sight: Amazon plans to use its BVLOS approval to expand in College Station, Texas, where it’s been testing drone deliveries for items weighing under 5 pounds.
Top of mind: Amazon has an ambitious goal to drone-deliver 500M+ parcels to Prime customers by 2030. Drones could give it an edge in super-fast shipping as ecomm rivals encroach on Prime territory.
Down the line: It’s possible Amazon could license its BVLOS tech, as it did with its cashierless “Just Walk Out” tech.
Deliveries lift off… Thousands of Americans have used drone deliveries for everything from prescription drugs and light bulbs to Chick-fil-A sandwiches. While Amazon builds its own drone tech, Walmart has teamed up with drone-delivery providers to cover more ground. In January, Walmart partnered with Zipline and Google’s Wing (both of which have BVLOS approval) to expand its drone delivery to 75% of the Dallas-Fort Worth population. Now Walmart says it has the largest drone-delivery footprint of any US retailer.
The skies can cover a lot of ground… The FAA is clearing the way for more drone deliveries as insatiable demand for speedy ecomm shipments clogs up roads, runs down infrastructure, and pollutes the environment. Last year UPS and Amazon needed 1.5M trucks a day to deliver 11B+ packages, most of which weighed under 5 pounds. From 2021 to 2022, global drone deliveries grew 80%+ to nearly 875K. While it’s still small potatoes, the market’s expected to cross $1B in the coming years.