Amazon Prime Air has officially expanded its drone delivery service to 50 US cities, covering an estimated 14 million households and making Amazon the first company to achieve nationwide drone delivery at commercial scale in the United States.
The expansion follows the FAA's finalization of Beyond Visual Line of Sight regulations last year, which provided the regulatory clarity that Amazon and other operators needed to scale operations. Drones can now fly up to 400 feet above ground and travel up to 7 miles from a fulfillment center without a human observer tracking every flight.
In cities where the service is live, Prime members with addresses within the delivery zone can order items weighing up to 5 pounds and receive them within 30 minutes. The service currently covers roughly 60% of Amazon's catalog by item count.
"This is the biggest change to last-mile delivery since the UPS truck," said Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. "We are removing the delivery window from e-commerce entirely."
Cities currently covered include suburbs of Dallas, Phoenix, Austin, Nashville, San Diego, Charlotte, Raleigh, and Columbus. Amazon plans to expand to 100 cities by the end of next year.
Competitors are watching closely. Walmart has partnered with Wing (a Google subsidiary) for its own drone program, and FedEx is piloting autonomous ground delivery robots in parallel.
