For more than a decade, Amazon has been working to deliver packages straight to customers’ doorsteps, using drones instead of drivers. However, the company’s one-hour delivery promise has been delayed again, with drone operations in Texas and Arizona now suspended.
Amazon’s “Prime Air” service is on hold, following the crash of two newly built drones during testing. The incidents occurred after light rain at Amazon’s testing facility in Oregon caused the MK30 drones to malfunction and crash, and one drone even caught fire.
A spokesperson for Amazon said the drone is “designed to safely respond to unknown events in a known way,” and noted that “the overall architecture of the drone has performed as expected.”
The pause follows Amazon’s launch of a new fleet of drones at the end of 2024, after two years of development. A key part of the testing was ensuring the drones could operate safely in light rain, the factor that led to the recent issue.
Amazon insists the pause is voluntary and not solely based on the crashes. The company says it is working to improve the safety of the drones, similar to a previous pause after earlier models experienced battery failures and power issues.
In 2013, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced plans to deliver packages to half a billion customers using drones. Progress has been gradual but steady. The company began drone deliveries in Texas in 2022, expanded to prescriptions in 2023, and added Arizona to the service last year.
Although Amazon ended its drone delivery program in California last spring, it plans to expand to new cities by the end of 2025.
Amazon hopes to resume deliveries once the FAA approves the necessary software updates for the drones.
