Amazon has received approval from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to fly its delivery drones over longer distances, the company was announced on Thursday. Amazon says it can now expand its Prime Air service, which uses delivery drones to fly individual packages, to more customers.
The FAA requires operators to maintain visual contact with their drones until it approves technology that can safely track and control them without graphics. Amazon says it has spent years developing Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) technology for its drones to ensure they can detect and avoid obstacles in the air.
The company demonstrated the technology for FAA inspectors to demonstrate that its drones can safely navigate away from planes, helicopters and hot air balloons.
The announcement comes after Alphabet’s wing received an exemption from the FAA last December to fly its drones beyond line of sight.
In a Press releaseAmazon said the approval allows it to, “serve more customers via drone and efficiently expand and scale [its] drone delivery operations’. Amazon is set to begin expanding its drone delivery operations in College Station, Texas to reach customers in more populated areas. The company also plans to integrate drone deliveries into its same-day delivery network within the year.
Amazon says it needed FAA approval to meet its goal of using drones to deliver 500 million packages a year by the end of this decade.
The announcement comes a month after Amazon confirmed it was ending Prime Air drone deliveries in Lockeford, California. The city was the company’s second drone delivery location in the US, after College Station. Amazon did not provide details on why it stopped drone delivery operations in the area, but announced that it was to begin drone deliveries in Tolleson, Arizona later this year.
Amazon isn’t the only tech company making drone deliveries, as Walmart introduced Wing drone deliveries to limited Superstores last year. Other companies partnering with Wing for drone deliveries include Walgreens and DoorDash.
