Amazon expanding drone program after regulators’ clearance

Amazon announced Thursday the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has authorized its Prime Air delivery drones to operate beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS), clearing a major hurdle to the tech giant’s plans to expand the reach of its deliveries.

Amazon said it has worked for years to develop and refine its “detect-and-avoid technology” to allow pilots to operate the drone remotely, while avoiding any obstacles in the air.

To obtain FAA approval, Amazon conducted flight demonstrations for FAA inspectors “to show our system works in real-world scenarios.”

“We flew in the presence of real planes, helicopters, and a hot air balloon to demonstrate how the drone safely navigated away from each of them,” the company said.

The FAA requires commercial drone operators to physically be able to see the drones as they operate them, unless they have developed BVLOS technology ensuring a remote pilot can operate the device safely.

The approval allows Amazon to “immediately” broaden its delivery area in College Station, Texas, one of the company’s initial test sites launched in 2022. It also clears the way for Amazon to launch drone deliveries to the West Valley of the Phoenix area in Arizona later this year.

“Our vision has remained unchanged since we started working on Prime Air: to create a safe and scalable way to deliver packages to customers in 30 minutes or less using highly autonomous drones,” the announcement Thursday read.

The company aims to use drones to deliver 500 million packages each year — a goal it hopes to reach by the end of the decade.

The FAA confirmed to The Hill that it authorized the removal of line-of-sight restrictions on Amazon.

“Safely integrating drones into the National Airspace System is a key priority for the FAA,” an agency spokesperson said. “The FAA is focused on developing standard rules to make BVLOS operations routine, scalable and economically viable.”