Amazon launched a new delivery drone that has “double the range and half the noise” of any of its predecessors.
The new MK30 drone received Federal Aviation Administration approval to begin operations for customers in October and was launched in locations in Arizona and Texas in November, the company said in a Wednesday (Dec. 11) press release.
The drone is now delivering items that weigh five pounds or less to designated areas near select addresses close to Amazon’s fulfillment center in Tolleson, Arizona, according to the release.
“It is the first drone we have developed from the ground up using a requirements-based process including more stringent requirements that will allow us to eventually reach a half billion customers annually,” Stephen Wells, chief project engineer for the Prime Air team, said in the release. “We designed it with aerospace levels of reliability and redundancy.”
The drone can operate safely in light rain, has redundant flight-critical systems to ensure no single point of failure can cause loss of control of the drone, and includes a perception system to detect and avoid aircraft and other obstacles that may not have been captured in satellite imagery, per the release.
“The MK30’s operational certification is a huge milestone for Amazon’s goal of having drones deliver 500 million packages globally by the end of the decade,” the release said.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in an April 11 letter to shareholders that drone delivery has the potential to revolutionize the grocery and pharmacy sectors by offering rapid delivery of packages within the hour, transforming the way perishable items are ordered and received.
“It won’t start off being available for all sizes of packages and in all locations, but we believe it’ll be pervasive over time,” Jassy wrote in the letter. “Think about how the experience of ordering perishable items changes with sub-one-hour delivery.”
Drone delivery is the latest battleground between Amazon and Walmart, with both retail giants taking to the skies to establish dominance in the delivery game, PYMNTS reported in October 2023.
At the time, Walmart had successfully fulfilled over 10,000 deliveries with its drone delivery operations across seven states and 36 stores.
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