Amazon’s drone delivery service, ‘Amazon Prime Air,’ is struggling with the service having only made 100 deliveries in its two operating locations, Texas and California, according to a report by CNBC.
With no reference point, 100 deliveries could almost sound like a milestone. However, this is far from the case. Amazon projected at the start of 2023 that over 10,000 deliveries would be sent out by the end of the year. The slow pace has seemingly continued, with the company currently sitting at about 1 percent of its goal for the year in late May.
That initial goal looks to have changed, as Amazon representative Av Raichura Zammit admitted that the process is taking longer than originally anticipated. “We’re working with the FAA and plan to expand deliveries to more customers over time,” Zammit said in an email to The Verge.
These plans have been ingrained in the company for some time now, with CEO Jeff Bezos announcing drone delivery projects all the way back in 2013.
One of the reasons for such poor results from Amazon Prime Air could stem from the FAA’s regulations, which prohibits acts such as flying through airways near people or across roadways. Amazon has tried to fight some of these regulations with limited success.
Another issue could be Amazon’s unfortunate history of drone crashes, which may be deterring people from ordering those same drones to fly near their homes and loved ones. One incident at the company’s Oregon test site sparked a 25-acre brush fire — which is never a good look.
To add insult to injury, some of the company’s biggest competitors have been doing quite well in the air delivery space. Walmart announced that it had completed over 6,000 deliveries across seven states in the US, a feat that Amazon Prime Air would desperately like to claim.
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