As TechCrunch reports, Amazon has begun making deliveries via drone in parts of Phoenix. We knew it was coming, and now it’s here. Customers in the West Valley Phoenix metro area should now have access to products that will be delivered to their doorsteps via favorable skies. These include household, office, health, and beauty supplies.
Phoenix residents will be able to click on the drone delivery icon before checking out. The company promises that items will be delivered within an hour. This is due to the improved specs of the company’s latest drone, the MK30, which was recently approved by the Federal Aviation Administration to fly beyond visual line of sight.
There are a few caveats. Products must weigh five pounds or less to be eligible, though Amazon says there are already about 50,000 items available for drone delivery. Also, the drones will only make deliveries during daylight hours and “favorable” weather conditions. “We currently do not offer drone deliveries at night, during high winds, or during heavy rain,” the company wrote in a blog post.
This comes just months after Amazon ended its drone-based delivery program, Prime Air, in California. The company still makes drone deliveries in Texas and plans a major expansion in Europe.
DJI has removed its geofence that prevents users in the US from flying over restricted areas such as nuclear power plants, airports and wildfires, the company wrote in a blog post on Monday. Starting January 13, areas previously called “restricted areas” or no-fly zones will be shown as “enhanced alert areas” that correspond to designated Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) zones. DJI’s Fly app will display warnings about those areas but will no longer prevent users from flying inside them, the company said.
In the article, DJI wrote that “in-app alerts will notify operators flying near controlled airspace designated by the FAA, thereby returning control to the hands of drone operators, consistent with regulatory principles of the operator bearing ultimate responsibility.” It also said that technologies like Remote ID [introduced after DJI implemented geofencing] give authorities “the tools they need to enforce existing regulations,” Adam Welsh, DJI’s global head of policy, told The Verge.
Still, this update is a strange one, considering that DJI is already in a shaky position in the US and could be banned from selling its products as early as next year. DJI’s former head of policy, Brendan Shulman, criticized the move in multiple posts on Twitter. “Over the past few years, there has been ample evidence that automated drone geofencing implemented using a risk-based approach has made a significant contribution to aviation safety,” he wrote.
There’s also a problem with drones weighing less than 250 grams. Those models were previously geofenced via GEO in restricted areas to prevent them from inadvertently flying in restricted locations. The update, however, will remove that geofencing, and flick off Remote ID on those lighter drones.
In fact, that’s exactly what happened last week when a sub-250-gram DJI model damaged the wing of a Canadair Super Scooper airplane fighting Los Angeles wildfires, causing it to temporarily stop working. That drone may not have been transmitting Remote ID, so the FBI said it would need to use “investigative means” to find the pilot.
DJI first implemented geofences (called GEOs) around airports in 2013, and added new zones in 2015 and 2016 after drones crashed on the White House lawn. It did so voluntarily, as the FAA only requires that operators be warned about restricted areas where flying is prohibited. However, the responsibility for staying out of no-fly zones will now be 100 percent on the operator.
“DJI reminds pilots to always ensure that flights are conducted safely and in accordance with all local laws and regulations. For flights conducted in advanced warning areas, drone operators should obtain airspace authorization directly from the FAA and consult the FAA’s No Drone Zones resource for further information,” it wrote.