Amazon demonstrates drone delivery as it seeks final approvals in Richmond area

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s … the toilet paper I ordered on Amazon?

Coming soon to the skies near you is Amazon Prime Air, the online retail giant’s drone delivery service. On Thursday, Amazon held a press event and community meet-and-greet at Richmond Raceway to discuss its plan to introduce drone delivery to Central Virginia. 

Launched in 2022, Prime Air currently serves 11 localities in America; Amazon plans to expand the program to 500 American cities and towns by the end of this year. Customers who use this program can expect to receive items by drone in as little as 30 minutes, with most orders arriving within an hour after checkout, Amazon says.

If all goes according to plan, Prime Air will soon serve parts of Richmond, Henrico County and Hanover County. The company is currently seeking the needed federal and landlord approvals to launch the program locally.

To be eligible for drone service, a property would have to be within a 7.5-mile radius of Amazon’s RIC4 fulfillment center, located just northwest of Richmond Raceway. Certain areas, such as properties located near Richmond International Airport, won’t be eligible for service.

Standing in front of a drone in Richmond Raceway’s third-floor Torque Club, Carmen Simboli, an Amazon aerospace integration specialist based out of Seattle, said it was possible that Richmond would be one of the 500 localities to come online by the end of the year. 

“We are looking to launch the site when we can,” he said. “We have to make sure all the regulations are in place and all the approvals are in place before we actually launch.”

To be eligible for drone delivery, the item or items being sent will have to weigh 5 pounds or less and fit inside of a large shoebox. Amazon says that 60% of items that customers most frequently purchase fit this criterion.

Prime members get free delivery for shipments that cost more than $50; there is a $2.99 charge for shipments below that threshold. Non-Prime members have to pay a $4.99 delivery fee.

Amazon’s drones are authorized to fly up to 400 feet above ground level but will generally cruise at 205-250 feet while delivering packages. Simboli compared the sound of the drone taking off and landing to an electric leaf blower.

“When it flies overhead, it’s almost imperceptible,” he said. “An analogy is an electric toothbrush held at arm’s length.” 

Asked about videos that show Amazon drones dropping deliveries into pools and making other mistakes, Simboli said “the numbers of those incidents, those anomalies, if you will, are very small,” and that Amazon had learned from the errors.

Amazon’s MK30 drone stands 5-and-a-half feet tall and 5-feet wide; an unladen drone weighs 78 pounds. The MK30 comes equipped with a triple-cell battery, six motors and six cameras. Simboli declined to discuss the cost of each drone or how expensive they are to operate, but said they were “highly autonomous,” and that a human remote pilot could take over control if necessary.  

Asked about privacy concerns, Simboli said the public shouldn’t worry. 

“With our drones, we do not live monitor anything, we don’t share any data that we collect. It is literally just for flight safety and delivery safety,” Simboli said. “We are not collecting or selling any information, nor are we viewing this live.”

Drones are increasingly becoming a part of our daily lives. In July, the Chesterfield County Police Department added drones to its first response operations to help assess emergency situations more quickly. As the skies see increased drone activity, should we worry about collisions?

“There is no common solution, but we’re working to solve that,” Simboli said. “We are reaching out to first responder agencies. There is a [drone] traffic management system … we have to encourage others to join, because it gives a common operating picture.”

The interactive map included with this article was made with the use of artificial intelligence technology. The Richmonder does not allow its reporters and writers to use artificial intelligence in the crafting of the articles themselves.