Nuked A report from Bloomberg details the obstacles hampering Amazon’s efforts to get its delivery drone program off the ground. Cited a high employee turnover rate and potential safety risks.
There were five crashes over the course of a four-month period at the company’s testing site in Pendleton, Oregon. A crash in May took place after a drone lost its propeller, but Amazon cleaned up the wreckage before the Federal Aviation administration could investigate.
The following month, a drone’s motor shut off as it switched from an upward flight path to flying straight ahead. As a result, the drone flipped upside down and dropped from 160 feet in the air, leading to a brush fire that stretched across 25 acres.
The FAA said instead of a controlled descent to a safe landing, the drone dropped about 160 feet in an uncontrolled vertical fall and was consumed by fire.
In 2019, Amazon previewed a redesign of its Prime Air delivery drone that has the ability to fly vertically. One year later, the company announced FAA approval for the company to operate as a drone airline in 2020.
A Wired report revealed Amazon’s drone delivery operation is struggling just as much in the UK, despite making its first-ever drone delivery in 2016. Wired’s report suggests that the UK outfit is marred by some of the same issues described by Bloomberg.
The NTSB never classified any of Amazon’s flight tests as an accident. They did n’t result in any injuries or put structures at risk.
No one has ever been injured or harmed as a result of these flights. Each test is done in compliance with all existing regulations.
Former and current employees at Amazon told Bloomberg that the company is prioritizing the rushed rollout of its drone program over safety. Cheddi skeete, a former drone project manager at Amazon, was fired last month for speaking with his manager about his safety concerns.
‘we take safety reporting seriously – we have a safety reporting system that’s well-known by all our team members, and we encourage them to raise any safety suggestions and concerns,’ zammit said.
David Johnson, a former drone flight assistant for Amazon, told Bloomberg that Amazon would sometimes perform tests’without a full flight team’. Johnson also said the company often assigned multiple roles to one person, a claim Bloomberg says is corroborated by two other former Amazon employees.
Johnson:’they give people multiple things to do in a very narrow window of time to try to boost their numbers’.’they were more concerned about pumping flights out and did n’t want to slow down’.
Zammit denied Johnson’s claims, stating:’we do not set time limits for completion of any aspect of our flight tests’. zammit said:’our team can take their time to complete their roles safely’.
Previous version of the article described a drone’s descent as’fiery’. Previous version described it as’blazing’ when it landed.
