By JOSH FUNK The Associated Press<\/p>\n
Millions more people may be able to get smaller, lightweight Amazon<\/a> packages delivered by drones by the end of the year under a plan the company announced Wednesday to expand the airborne shipping to suburban areas in nearly 500 U.S. cities.<\/p>\n Customers could receive the drone deliveries in as fast as 30 minutes, Amazon said in a news release. The drones can carry packages up to 5 pounds.<\/p>\n The plan will intensify the battle<\/a> between Amazon and Walmart<\/a> to provide consumers with the fastest delivery times. Both giants rely on a mix of drones and drivers to deliver everything consumers have ordered.<\/p>\n The goal is not necessarily about cutting costs by replacing drivers and trucks \u2014 and drones that can only carry one package at a time would have a hard time doing that. But instead, these companies are using drones as one tool to help keep customers happy with quicker deliveries, banking on a faster delivery system attracting more shoppers.<\/p>\n Amazon\u2019s plan would expand its drone delivery operation more than sixfold nationwide into hundreds of new communities, including the Chicago, Atlanta, Cleveland and Boise metro areas<\/a>. The drones will primarily fly in the suburbs well away from skyscrapers and major airports<\/a> that could cause problems. Each drone site serves multiple cities in a metro area, and Amazon would not say exactly how many new sites it is planning to begin flying from.<\/p>\n Drone delivery is growing fast but remains a small factor<\/p>\n Hundreds of thousands of packages have already been delivered by Amazon drones this year, but even after this expansion drones will still only handle a fraction of the hundreds of millions of package deliveries each year. In addition to only being able to carry 5 pounds, the drones Amazon builds face countless challenges from tree cover to landscaping and inflatable pools that can make it hard to find a good drop zone.<\/p>\n There are also regulatory hurdles to overcome in every community where Amazon wants to set up operations. Noise concerns also pose a potential challenge.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s still an experiment. It\u2019s still in test and learn mode,\u201d said Sucharita Kodali, who is a retail analyst with Forrester.<\/p>\n More than two decades have passed since Amazon founder Jeff Bezos first described his vision for drone deliveries in an interview on \u201c60 Minutes,\u201d which shows how hard it has been to develop the service, get all the needed approvals and prove the concept works.<\/p>\n Kodali said Amazon\u2019s expansion plan \u201cdoes seem aggressive but remember that lots of the 500 may be small towns located in close proximity to one another. The coming soon list is actually only a handful of metro areas. Also \u2018launching\u2019 in a town doesn\u2019t mean they are getting any meaningful sales.\u201d<\/p>\n Walmart also uses drones in some locations as part of its delivery service, but the core part of its network relies on drivers to bring orders directly from its stores to customers. Walmart didn\u2019t immediately respond Wednesday to Amazon\u2019s announcement, but the retail giant said early this year that it planned to expand drone delivery service<\/a> to 150 more stores in partnership with Wing, a division of Alphabet, to give it 270 drone delivery locations by 2027.<\/p>\n The novelty of drone delivery may attract orders at first<\/p>\n Initially, consumers might order something delivered by drone because they are curious about it, but it\u2019s not clear how often they will continue to use the service, and Amazon is still working out the economics, Kodali said.<\/p>\n The service will be free for Amazon Prime members who are ordering more than $50 worth of goods, but smaller orders will cost members $2.99. Non-members will pay $4.99 for drone delivery.<\/p>\n Prime members get free deliveries while non-members pay a flat fee if the shipment is under $35 for standard delivery or up to $12.99 for same\u2011day shipments when available.<\/p>\n Kodali said drones could prove more useful for certain lightweight deliveries that are needed urgently like prescription medications.<\/p>\n DoorDash and other delivery companies also are experimenting<\/a> with using drones to deliver foods and other goods.<\/p>\n Amazon CEO believes drone delivery will be part of the mix<\/p>\n Amazon\u2019s CEO Andy Jassy told shareholders<\/a> in his annual letter in April that the company has learned a great deal by flying drones in 11 sites across Arizona, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, and Texas. In each location, the drones launch from an Amazon warehouse and cover about 175 square miles, so it takes multiple drone launching locations to serve a large metro area.<\/p>\n \u201cPrime Air now has a design that\u2019ll scale, plans to serve communities with 30 million customers by year-end, and expects to deliver half a billion packages by the end of this decade (with an aim to deliver inside 30 minutes),\u201d Jassy wrote.<\/p>\n Amazon is also continuing to invest in its warehouses, smaller fulfillment centers closer to customers and its fleet of trucks as the company competes to deliver packages within minutes or hours<\/a> instead of just days.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not clear that drone delivery is cheaper than trucks at this point because a team of people is needed to make drone delivery possible and those people might even earn more than a truck driver since they may have to be licensed drone pilots.<\/p>\n Amazon is already certified by the Federal Aviation Administration and the company has been awarded waivers to fly drones beyond the line of sight of the pilots. Amazon has invested in safety measures to help drones avoid collisions<\/a> with anything else in the sky while they are making deliveries.<\/p>\n