Amazon aims for delivery drones to reach 500 US neighborhoods by end of 2026
US residents face trade-offs as delivery drone services such as Prime Air expand.
US residents face trade-offs as delivery drone services such as Prime Air expand.
The short version
- Amazon wants to grow its Prime Air delivery drone service sixfold to reach nearly 500 cities and towns across the United States by the end of 2026.
- The planned expansions from Amazon and its rivals could make the convenience of delivery drone services available to tens of millions more people in the coming months—but will also test more communities’ tolerance for increased noise from daily drone flights.
- On August 19, Amazon announced it would soon launch Prime Air in the metropolitan areas of Chicago; Cleveland; Atlanta; Syracuse, New York; and Boise, Idaho, with more to come later in the year.
What happened
Each Prime Air site offers delivery drone service within an area of about 175 square miles, with delivery times ranging from half an hour to an hour. Prime Air already operates out of Amazon warehouses in 10 cities across seven states.
Why it matters
Those include primarily suburban neighborhoods of Phoenix; Tampa; Kansas City; Omaha, Nebraska; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Detroit; Houston; and San Antonio, Dallas, and Waco, Texas.
Summary by Nerd News Network. Read the full article at Ars Technica via the links above and below.