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Videos Catch Amazon Delivery Drones Dropping Packages From 10 Feet in the Air (nypost.com) 82

Posted by EditorDavid from the special-deliveries dept.
There's been a few complaints about Amazon's drone delivery service. "The automated mailmen are dropping off packages from 10 feet in the air," reports the New York Post, "rendering the contents of each box susceptible to crashing and smashing."

One example? Tamara Hancock filmed a drone delivering a bottle of Torani flavoring syrup to her home in Arizona (as a test of how Amazon handled fragile items). It was delivered it in a plastic bottle — not glass — but the massive drone drops the drone from so high that the impact cracked the bottle's cap. (In the video Hancock opens her delivery to find leaked flavoring syrup "everywhere.")

The delivery was hard to film, Hancock says, because "If the drone sees me in the back yard, it will not drop, because it is worried about hurting humans or animals." The Post notes Amazon's "AI-charged fleet" of drones are "Outfitted with industry-leading 'sense and avoid' technology, the aerodynamic machines are equipped to drop off eligible items, weighing a maximum of five pounds, at designated areas in 60 minutes or less." The high-tech, however, apparently does not ensure gentle landings. Collisions, including a recent crash-and-burn into a Texas building, as well as several mid-flight malfunctions in rainy weather, have abounded since the drones' inaugural launch....

Tasha, a separate Amazon user, spotted the drone plunging a package near the paved driveway of a neighbor's yard. Unfortunately, its propellers caused other, previously delivered parcels to blow away, sending one into the street... In a statement to The Post, Amazon said it apologized for one of the "rare instances when products don't arrive as expected."
Amazon's drone fleet has been running since late 2024, the Post adds, and are now offering "ultra-fast" shipping in U.S. states including Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Kansas and Texas.

The machines do seem massive. I'm surprised neighbors aren't complaining about the noise...

Videos Catch Amazon Delivery Drones Dropping Packages From 10 Feet in the Air More | Reply

Videos Catch Amazon Delivery Drones Dropping Packages From 10 Feet in the Air

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  • So... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by nospam007 ( 722110 ) * on Monday April 20, 2026 @07:41AM (#66102690)

    ...just like a HUMAN delivery guy?

    Sweet! Progress!

  • Glad we're focusing on the real issue here - that somebody can order a bottle of syrup from a giant drone and fuck everyone else who might be disrupted by the noise, or worse harmed being under a drone (or package) which falls out of the sky.

    • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

      by Mr. Dollar Ton ( 5495648 )

      How is this a "troll" post, OP is spot on.

    • Ask your city managers to prohibit drones.

      Drones are dangerous. We have heard of only a few serious accidents. If drone delivery continues, there will be many more accidents, including a package delivered by a drone hitting someone.

      • Amazon's drone fleet has been running since late 2024, the Post adds, and are now offering "ultra-fast" shipping in U.S. states including Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Kansas and Texas.

        So they've been mis-handling drone-delivered packages for 18 months now in several states, and only now we're hearing about the 'horrors' of an item in a plastic bottle breaking on 'drop-off'? If this were as big an issue as the submitter and editor want us to believe it is, why did it take so long to be reported on?

        I suspect this has been much more successful than this article would lead you to believe.

        (I expect a lot of the deliveries might be books, which aren't likely to suffer so much from a 10 foot dr

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by cruff ( 171569 )
        Unfortunately the FAA regulations most likely preempt any local regulations.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Sloppy ( 14984 )

        With this attitude, we are never getting our flying cars. I'm starting to think The Jetsons was fiction.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Bert64 ( 520050 )

      And this is different from the traditional delivery trucks that are both noisy and can just as easily harm someone by hitting them?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DrXym ( 126579 )
        Trucks are not as noisy as this, and yeah they can hit somebody. If your argument is "but trucks kill people too" then you've conceding the point.

    • Wait until you hear what a diesel semi sounds like.

  • This drone was designed in cooperation with some Ukrainian company.

    Model is Grenade 3 or something like that...

  • Loud? It fits right in. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Smonster ( 2884001 ) on Monday April 20, 2026 @08:17AM (#66102756)
    While people like to think the sound of the drones would ruin otherwise tranquil settings, I have to say at least here in my neighborhood it would fit right in. My neighbors and I all may have roughly half acre lots, not be on busy streets, and are surrounded by noise dampening giant trees on rolling hills. But between the weekly leaf blowers and lawn mowers; plus the: home projects, delivery drivers, and the five private trash companies that all pick up trash and recycling bins all on different days which service the neighborhood it is hardly consistently quiet. Add in the church bells and occasional sirens wafting in over the hills as well all, an intermittent buzz of a drone would fit right in.

    I’m not surprised at all these neighbors don’t notice.

    • You seem to be missing 5 times a day call to prayers. Coming soon.

  • I haven't been keeping up with Amazon's quixotic drone delivery developments. I hope like hell it never shows up in my area. But the fact that it poops the package onto your driveway is hilarious!

    • But the fact that it poops the package onto your driveway is hilarious!

      Someone needs to explain to the Amazon drone software team that Simultaneous Localization And Mapping isn’t literally the acronym.

  • 1 to 1 delivery? (Score:3)

    by SouthSeb ( 8814349 ) on Monday April 20, 2026 @08:27AM (#66102782)

    I fail to see how one massive drone delivering one package at a time is sustainable at all, only to avoid paying humans. Also, imagine dozens of drones buzzing over the neighborhood. It would be incredibly annoying.

    • Re:1 to 1 delivery? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by burtosis ( 1124179 ) on Monday April 20, 2026 @10:15AM (#66102956)

      I fail to see how one massive drone delivering one package at a time is sustainable at all, only to avoid paying humans. Also, imagine dozens of drones buzzing over the neighborhood. It would be incredibly annoying.

      It’s been in literature the plan with this approach is to automate autonomous delivery trucks that serve as primary cargo transport, data hub, and recharging station. That way the van just makes periodic stops with the drones solving the last block problem. I don’t know if they will use that approach anytime soon though.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Jeremi ( 14640 )

      Also, imagine dozens of drones buzzing over the neighborhood. It would be incredibly annoying.

      It depends on the density of the neighborhood. The preferred use-case for drones is "neighborhoods" where the houses are few and far apart from each other, making ground delivery tedious and making the distance between the drone and the nearest set of ears larger.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by SumDog ( 466607 )
      Almost all drone delivery experiments and startups have failed. I'm surprised Amazon is still going. I'm going to guess this division is losing a few million a year and they'll have to eventually kill it, just like all the other attempts. There was one drone company that lowered packages on zip lines that seems better, developed by the same people who made blood transfusion delivery drones for remote regions in Africa. Haven't heard about them in a while though.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Almost all drone delivery experiments and startups have failed. I'm surprised Amazon is still going. I'm going to guess this division is losing a few million a year and they'll have to eventually kill it, just like all the other attempts.

        For one, Amazon has much more brand trust than most other single-purpose shopping brands, with perhaps only walmart at the same level.
        There are people with misgivings on giving their credit card over to $random_company, while amazon has earned their trust.

        For two, a few million lost a year would be great, that's a good hundred+ years of service before we have to even worry about it closing down.

        Twitch brings in only a couple billion a year, while costing at least three, losing money hand over fist, every ye

      • Zipline is still around, still making deliveries in Africa and some other places, and also doing some in the US, for Wal-mart.

  • The whole thing probably needs a few more decades to work well. I guess somebody "important" had to blow up their ego and could not wait. Also reminds me of certain other projects, like some tunnels, for example.

  • We all have cell phone cameras, tied to phones that mostly have the amazon app installed (if you are prime customer). You photo the package if the carton looks damaged, you photo the item the moment you open the carton lid if you see damage. You report the damaged item, 90% if the time time they agree to send you a new one right away and don't require you to return the damaged item.

    So really other than as a customer, you item maybe being delayed a day while you wait for replacement, this is entirely a inv

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Junta ( 36770 )

      Ok, but how does it work in the scenario where it pushed another package into the street and then the package gets hit by a car? A package that may have nothing to do with Amazon aside from it being pushed into the street.

      Also, from my experience with this, it's true that 90% of the time they are pretty agreeable, but coincidentally the 10% of the time where they are skeptical just happens to be the more expensive stuff.

      I just don't order expensive stuff from amazon. Actually, Amazon is only if I can't get

    • it's the DSP problem as they will be the one eating the damage costs.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by skam240 ( 789197 )

      Making people wait an extra day because of crappy delivery methods is bad for business. Then there's the issue of waste as many of us don't like seeing stuff go through all of the efforts and energy expenditures of being manufactured only to be destroyed without even being used once.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DarkOx ( 621550 )

        Even if not specifically inventory shrink, it is still the same class for problem. It roll it up one level higher and either the delivery is successful or it isn't.

        Be it first party Amazon vans or 3rd party shippers UPS/FEx/USPS, lost, damaged, and late packages occur in those lanes as well. It just an optimization problem. Either the the (presumed) increase of loss related to drone delivery is less then the offsetting cost savings, including reputation costs that translate to market share and recurring r

  • How high is your porch roof?

  • Zipline (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Tx ( 96709 ) on Monday April 20, 2026 @08:53AM (#66102818) Journal

    Do Zipline have a patent on their system or something? Otherwise I don't see why everybody doesn't just copy that. Keeping the drone quite high up and then winching the package to the ground avoids several of the issues seen in these videos - the drone stays too high up to blow stuff such as other packages around, also reducing the noise experienced at ground level, and winching the package down until the line goes slack ensures a soft landing. It seems like a totally superior way to do it.

    • i think they do have a patent

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dirk ( 87083 )

      My guess is that the issue is the chance of the line being tangled in something. If there are trees around, a gust of wind could easily blow the line (with or without package) into the trees. You also have to leave the package somewhere out in the open as there would be no way to put in on a covered porch.

      • They already can't drop the package onto a covered porch the way they're operating now, unless they're doing it as a bombing run and calculating the arc so as to miss any roof over it...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by RobinH ( 124750 )
      I'm pretty sure zipline would have a lot of incentive to patent it. But you can license patent rights.

  • Did anyone else picture the opening scene in Ace Ventura where he poses as a UPS driver playing soccer with the package in the apartment building hallway?

    If you haven't seen it, here it is: https://youtu.be/7YrpmZFixp0?s... [youtu.be]

  • The amazon package-pult . This new, internet enabled AI-controlled delivery system will deliver packages right to your door if youâ(TM)re within 2 miles of an Amazon delivery center. Also available for delivery to houses of your enemies: rocks, flaming barrels and rotting livestock carcasses.

    Also under development- now announcing the Amazon package-tillery system. Only available in cities that lack missile defenses.

  • "If the drone sees me in the back yard, it will not drop, because it is worried about hurting humans or animals."

    But it isn't. It's easy enough to use stereo vision to measure the distance to an object and then determine whether or not it could get into the drop zone even if it started moving at top speed with no acceleration time. Also, if it was "worried" it wouldn't drop things from such a height.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Jeremi ( 14640 )

      But it isn't. It's easy enough to use stereo vision to measure the distance to an object and then determine whether or not it could get into the drop zone even if it started moving at top speed with no acceleration time. Also, if it was "worried" it wouldn't drop things from such a height.

      She should have said "programmed" rather than anthropomorphizing it, but other than that, she's correct -- that is, in fact, how it is programmed to behave.

    • An item dropped from 10 feet high will take 0.79 sec to hit ground, in which time a speeding cat or dog could cover 20-35 feet.

      Animal could also easily be hidden from arial view.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by pjt33 ( 739471 )

        You've assumed that the item is being dropped under Earth gravity in a vacuum. Add air resistance and the time will go up to about 1.0 seconds.

      • Animal could also easily be hidden from arial view.

        It could also be hidden from Wingdings or... (wait for it) ...Impact.

        If the animal is hidden from view then it's irrelevant to this discussion since the drone only can react to what it can sense.

        • The relevance is the dropping packages from a height of 10 feet is not only a poor way to treat customer packages, it's also dangerous for the exact reason you point out - it puts the package dropper in a position it has no way to know if what it is doing is safe or not.

  • If you actually plan your life out for one week ahead instead of one day or minute even 'only' a weekly delivery would be plenty fast. We need to move to weekly deliveries not daily drops (pun absolutely intended). Think of the environment, but you obviously don't.

  • All we need to do is get some Ukrainian industry assistance. I'm sure we could provide some hardware or something as compensation. If any knows how to get drones to "deliver" in difficult circumstances, it's them.

  • It was a low impact airborne remote delivery that was 99% successful!

  • There's tons of videos (Score:3)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Monday April 20, 2026 @10:39AM (#66103006)
    Of those stupid delivery robots running into traffic or knocking people over or just running into things and doing damage.

    They are remote controlled like the cars but I think like the cars they try to run autonomously as much as they can but they're not as well monitored because the assumption is they can't do as much damage.

    They're not going to kill you but they're going to fuck up the front end of your car if one of them hits you.

    I am really sick and tired of billionaire tech Bros being allowed to experiment in cities a personal risk to myself.

  • Nope. It's a failure. They promised this years ago and it doesn't work.

    Time for the FAA to shut down the drone delivery nationwide and end this stupidity.

  • It will need to be replaced, who pays: Amazon or the supplier/manufacturer ?

  • not relly a big deal if they have enough padding in the box.

  • Maybe the real lesson is (Score:3)

    by jpellino ( 202698 ) on Monday April 20, 2026 @11:49AM (#66103162)

    that Amazon will try ANYTHING to avoid paying an actual person a sustainable livable wage.

  • drones will release your packages from 100 ft! For even faster delivery!
  • So basically, it is like the airport where your bag gets flung ten feet regardless. In this case, it will be popcorn time when some drone drops a package on someone's dog.

  • –Amazon Rocket Delivery.

  • >"There's been a few complaints"

    There is been a few complaints?

    I know English can be challenging, but could the editors PLEASE put forth at least a little effort? I don't understand this trend to use "there's" with singular targets.

    There HAVE been a few complaints.

    • >"I don't understand this trend to use "there's" with singular targets."

      Sigh. That was meant to be "plural targets."

    • Think of it as a shorthand for the "there exists" symbol. But written prose needs to be more formal. The worst part is random metaphors that might be common for native speakers, but others will find mystifying, especially sports metaphors related to baseball or US football, or equivalently, cricket.

  • NASA's Mars lander airbag technology.

  • The drones are practicing the bombing runs.

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