Last week, Amazon successfully tested a drone delivery in the United States for the first time. But drones still won’t be delivering stuff to your house any time soon.
Last week, Amazon Prime Air released dramatic video of a drone delivering bottles of sunscreen in a test at Amazon’s MARS conference in a controlled environment at Palm Springs International Airport in California.
Pretty cool stuff, even if the company has already demonstrated the ability to complete actual commercial drone deliveries in the United Kingdom.
But my longstanding skepticism for the practicality of drone deliveries hasn’t diminished. More than two years ago, for example, I listed 10 reasons Amazon’s drone delivery plan still won’t fly.
The technology has advanced significantly since then, and we know a lot more about Amazon’s plans to make drone deliveries practical. But despite all that, there are still plenty of reasons to doubt that an autonomous quadcopter will soon be hovering over your house to drop off your latest Amazon order.
Significant obstacles to drone delivery remain
First off, most of the objections I raised back in 2015 still apply, including questions about interference, hacking, liability, weather (Amazon notes that in the U.K., it is “currently permitted to operate during daylight hours when there are low winds and good visibility, but not in rain, snow or icy conditions”) and costs—especially when mixing drones with conventional delivery methods.
For one thing, the Amazon service is focused on delivering items that weigh less than 5 pounds. That could cover a wide variety of items, but hardly all of the things Amazon sells. And if customers order multiple items, they could quickly add up to surpass the weight limit or require multiple trips.
For another, the service requires a special landing pad, preferably in a secure location. Obviously, urban dwellers may not have ready access to an appropriate spot. Plus there are possible issues with tall buldings and utility wires—even though drones are equipped with sense-and-avoid technologies. That’s no doubt one reason why the U.K. tests have been confined to rural locations.
But since the drones have limited range, even customers in the countryside could be too far from the closest distribution center to enable drone deliveries. Heck, even trees could get in the way, which may be why the image below shows a test delivery to an open field (not necessarily where most folks will want their package dropped off).
Realistically, then, drones are never going to be able to replace conventional delivery methods, merely supplement them at best. That seems certain to limit the potential cost savings.
Rules and regulations continue to ground drone deliveries
Oh, and I haven’t even mentioned perhaps the biggest issue: regulations. The reason U.S. tests have been delayed is because the Federal Aviation Administration has yet to approve commercial drone flights within sight of real airplanes or to fly over airspace controlled by people who aren’t buying anything. (I don’t want someone else’s package buzzing over my house, how about you?)
Amazon—along with many other companies—is lobbying heavily to have some of those flight rules relaxed, but it’s not clear how big a priority that is for the FAA and other regulatory agencies.
Unless and until the rules change, though, even the unlikely event of Amazon being able to solve all the other challenges facing drone deliveries won’t be enough to launch squadrons of delivery drones into American skies.
