By Greg Bensinger
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 19 (Reuters) – Amazon said on Wednesday it will expand its drone delivery service to reach hundreds of U.S. cities and towns by year end, up from 11 locations where it currently operates serving multiple surrounding communities.
The expansion comes more than a decade after founder Jeff Bezos showed off what he called octocopters, or unmanned drones, in 2013 and predicted that the service would be available within four to five years.
Amazon currently delivers by drone from 11 locations, including Papillion, Nebraska, and Ruskin, Florida. It is planning to expand to Syracuse, New York, and near Cleveland, among other areas. A single delivery hub can reach multiple towns within a roughly 7.5-mile radius. Amazon said its broad rollout will extend its reach to about 500 locales.
Amazon has redesigned its Prime Air drone several times since 2013. Earlier models landed to drop off packages; the current version, known as the MK30, hovers a few feet above ground and releases them.
It costs customers $4.99 for a drone delivery, but $2 less for Prime members. The fee is waived on orders of at least $50.
Amazon announced the expansion after Reuters contacted the company on Tuesday about the service.
The company will have to seek regulatory approval in each of the communities it plans to enter, often requiring local council hearings and feedback from residents. It has Federal Aviation Administration approval to fly them in most areas of the U.S., Amazon has said.
For example, at a planning and zoning meeting in Nampa, Idaho, in May, Amazon executive Sam Bailey was questioned about noise, safety and drone logistics for about an hour and listened to residents who opposed the service for a variety of reasons, including bird safety. Ultimately, the board voted unanimously to approve the service’s rollout.
Bailey said the drones would be audible for about 20 seconds while descending and then flying away at a noise level lower than that of a lawnmower. “It’s a brief experience,” he said. “Albeit it’s a new innovation so it’s going to seem different but not any different than a delivery truck coming down your street.”
He said drone delivery is useful for older adults, parents whose kids “popped a fever” and people who forgot ingredients for their home-cooked meals.
Videos of successful drone deliveries posted on social media sites indicate that the drop-offs are equivalent in noise to a leaf blower, though not as sustained. Amazon has said that community concerns over privacy are unfounded, as the embedded cameras are used only for navigation.
The drones have been involved in a few accidents, including in October when two of the vehicles collided with a crane in suburban Arizona. That incident is still under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.
At a March hearing in Richardson, Texas, one resident complained about her misfortune. “I consistently hear the buzz of drones overhead, and it is very irritating and not very peaceful,” she said.
Bailey told council members that Amazon had changed the drones’ average flight height and made tweaks to routes to fly over commercial zones more consistently.
Still, at least one council member seemed resigned to Amazon moving forward, whatever the local feedback. “This technology is inevitable,” he said. “What we need to do with all new technology and all new formats of technology is to find ways to work with it and make changes along the way.”
(Reporting by Greg Bensinger; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Mark Porter)
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