“A welcome convenience for some, but an invasion for others.”
That line that could describe a lot of technology right now. But, in this case, it comes from a New York Times article focused on Amazon drone delivery in Richardson, outside of Dallas.
Richardson is on the front end of what could be happening in about 500 communities across the country by the end of this year. Folks are second-guessing the benefits of the deliveries that can arrive as few as 30 minutes after ordering.
New York Times national correspondent Juliet Macur spent some time in North Texas talking to neighbors.
“I think a lot these Amazon programs, these drone programs will just pop up in these places where people didn’t quite know that the city council was talking to Amazon, rezoning things, or maybe they didn’t need rezoning at all and just one day you just see a drone going over your house and wonder where it came from,” Macur said.
She said this was the experience of many Richardson residents.
“They were out in their backyard one day, they heard this buzzing coming from who knows where and then suddenly this huge drone passes over their house and they have no idea what it is or where it’s from and sooner or later they talk to their neighbors and figure out, wait, this is coming from the Amazon distribution center, the one that’s closest to them,” Macur said.
Noise is one of the biggest complaints. They sound a little something like this:
Noise and privacy concerns
“You start hearing the buzzing and it’s like, I think somebody described it as an invasion and it kind of feels that way, having not heard it before, wondering which direction it’s coming from,” Macur said.
The folks she focused on for her story live near the Amazon distribution center.
“They call it a drone highway, and I would agree,” Macur said. “The drones take a certain flight path out of the distribution center and then fan out all over the area.”
Sometimes the drones are leaving the distribution every few minutes — flying over their backyard pools and patios.
“So it’s the noise, but it’s also that invasion of privacy that people are feeling,” Macur said. “Because these drones do have cameras, multiple cameras. And although Amazon says, hey, nobody’s watching these cameras live and hey, we encrypt all this data and only authorized people get access to it, people are still a little bit freaked out by having this flying camera over their home multiple times — sometimes multiple times an hour.”
The Richardson city council narrowly approved the rezoning necessary to make drone delivery possible. At the federal level, the FAA regulates drone flight.
More drone delivery is ahead
“So these delivery drones were given clearance to fly by the FAA this past summer,” Macur said.
That FAA approval is leading to estimates that the number of delivery drones could go quickly.
“The number of delivery drones are going to go up in the next few months,” Macur said. “By the end of the year, Amazon’s going to have them flying all over the country. Right now, the FAA says that there are about 900,000 registered drones, which are commercial drones like Amazon’s, but also recreational drones that you might see, somebody messing with taking pictures of their neighborhood or whatever. But by 2030, they estimate the number of drones to go up to more than 3.5 million.”
Amazon plans to quickly expand drone delivery.
“So this could be unfolding in other cities around the country,” Macur said.
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