For 10 years, Jeff Bezos has had a recurring obsession: making deliveries for his sprawling business by drones.
For a month, this objective has become a reality… but not exactly as he had hoped: among the thousands of orders made each day by his company, the drones have only supported ten deliveries, and this, for all the month of January.
Figures far from impressive…
2023 is the year of renewal for Amazon. Since January, in fact, some of the brand’s deliveries have been carried out directly by drones. This delivery method is currently only available in the states of Texas and California. Progress is therefore underway and, as often, it means that quantities that have become negligible (here the employees) no longer have their place in the company.
Indeed, the logistics centers that have started to use drones have preferred to reduce part of their workforce. But they obviously should have anticipated the demand a little better. Looking at the beginnings of this system, humans seem to still have their place in the Amazon system.
Because you don’t control a drone like you drive a van, and American regulations in this area only allow deliveries to less than 10 homes.
… in particular due to US regulations on the issue
The problem therefore does not come a priori so much from the technology, which is beginning to be sufficiently proven, but from the decisions of the FAA (American civil aviation authority). One point in particular considerably limits the large-scale deployment of delivery drones: they are not allowed to cross a road, unless an Amazon employee is present to ensure that no vehicle passes at that time. At Amazon, we must have appreciated: a drone made to replace the movements of a human needs several of them to move.
These regulations were even stricter during the test phase: drones could only fly in sparsely populated areas, not approach within thirty meters of a building, and could only fly over areas belonging at Amazon. This did not prevent 5 crashes in 4 months, one of them causing a major bush fire.
Not yet launched in Europe, this program could encounter even greater difficulties there, given the regulations imposed on tech giants by the EU. So your PS5 will probably be brought to you by a van delivery man, not a drone. The era of the notice of passage is therefore not yet over.
Source : The Information, Business Insider, The Verge
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