Amazon is going through a probe by the federal government since one of its drone deliveries caused a downed internet cable in central Texas last week.
The probe follows after Amazon competes to increase the number of drone deliveries to additional pockets of the U.S., more than a decade after it initially thought of the aerial delivery scheme, and as it encounters even fiercer rivalry with Walmart, which is also initiating drone deliveries.
The incident happened on November 1,8 around 12:45 p.m. Central in Waco, Texas.
According to a video of the incident viewed and verified by CNBC, one of the drones in the Amazon MK30 series, which was ascending out of a customer’s yard by dropping off the package, as one of its six propellers became tangled in the nearest internet cable.
The video depicts the Amazon drone as shearing the wire line. The video shows that the motor of the drone was then seen to switch off, and the plane self-landed with its propellers gently windmilling as it fell.
The drone still seemed to be intact, with the possible exception of some damage to one of the propellers. A spokesperson of the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed that the incident is under investigation.
The National Transportation Safety Board stated that the agency knows about the incident; however, the agency has not initiated an investigation concerning the case.
Amazon reported the event to CNBC, indicating that following the cutting of the internet cable, the drone made a “safe contingent landing,” citing the methods that allow its drones to land safely in unexpected conditions.
An Amazon spokesperson informed CNBC, stating that the drone had accomplished its package delivery, “There were no injuries or widespread internet service outages. We’ve paid for the cable line’s repair for the customer and have apologized for the inconvenience this caused them.”
This incident follows another investigation commenced by federal investigators last month on a crash that involved two of Amazon’s Prime Air drones in Arizona.
The two aircraft bumped into a construction crane in Tolleson, a city located west of Phoenix, leading Amazon to temporarily suspend drone deliveries in the region.
For almost a decade now, Amazon has been trying to achieve the vision of founder Jeff Bezos of drones whizzing toothpaste, books, and other goods to customers’ doorsteps in just 30 minutes or less.
The company started using drones to make deliveries in College Station, Texas, and Lockeford, California, in 2022.
However, improvements have been slowed by a combination of regulatory difficulties, missed deadlines, and layoffs in 2023, which were accompanied by larger-scale cost-cutting measures by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.
The company has already indicated that it aims to achieve 500 million packages by drone annually by the end of the decade. The new generation of Amazon Prime Air drone, the hexacopter-looking MK30, is intended to be quieter, smaller, and lighter than the previous year’s.
Amazon indicates that the drones come with a sense-and-avoid system that helps them to “detect and stay away from obstacles in the air and on the ground.”
The company suggests that the customers should maintain “about 10 feet of open space” on their property to ensure that drones can deliver.
The company has been making drone deliveries in Waco since the beginning of the month to customers within a specific area around its same-day delivery facility who place orders for qualifying goods weighing 5 pounds or less.
Meanwhile, the drone deliveries are expected to drop packages within less than an hour. Other locations that have been introduced online by Amazon in recent months include Kansas City, Missouri, Pontiac, Michigan, San Antonio, Texas, and Ruskin, Florida.
Amazon furthermore declared its goal to extend drone deliveries to Richardson, Texas. Walmart started to provide drone deliveries, and collaborates with Alphabet’s Wing today, and venture-backed startup Zipline to provide drone deliveries in several states, including Texas.
