Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is having trouble getting its drone delivery system off the ground. The challenges the company seems to be facing are safety risks and increased employee turnover.
Amazon has had malfunctions with its drones
Reports indicate that the company encountered five crashes in four months as it tested the drone at Pendleton, Oregon. One crash occurred in May after the drone lost a propeller. However, the company allegedly cleared the package so the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) couldn’t investigate.
According to Av Zammit, a spokesperson for Amazon, this was not true. Zammit claims that Amazon followed National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) order, thus documenting the incident and removing the drone. He adds that the NTSB doesn’t consider the tests incidents accidents since no physical injury occurred.
In June, the company had another incident as its motor shut off while it transitioned from flying upwards to going straight ahead. Reports indicate that two different safety features didn’t work in the accident. One of the features stabilizes the drone, and the other is to land it in case.
Since the safety features failed, the drone flipped and fell from 10 feet. It caused a brush fire of over 25 acres. As a result, the fire department had to get involved and put out the fire.
It has been nine years since Amazon first discussed drone delivery
The Amazon drone projects seem to be a disaster since Jeff Bezos, the former CEO of Amazon, announced that the company would make drones to deliver packages in 30 minutes. This announcement was made in 2013. However, it has been nine years, and Amazon still hasn’t been successful.
Furthermore, the company has also planned to launch drone delivery in 2019 after redesigning the Prime Air Delivery Drone. This drone can fly vertically. Despite the stir the news caused, the launch did not come.
In 2020, the company also announced that the FAA had authorized it to operate a drone airline. Other reports show that Amazon is also having a challenging time with its U.K drone business. The company is facing the same problems in the country as in the U.S.
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