Parcels are arriving in pieces with Amazon’s artificial intelligence-powered delivery drones. The automated mailmen are dropping off packages from 10 feet in the air, rendering the contents of each box susceptible to crashing and smashing.
“I tried ordering a breakable item by drone — it didn’t go well,”
Tamara Hancock, an Amazon subscriber from Arizona, captioned YouTube footage of the ill-fated experiment, testing the robo-courier’s management of fragile goods.
Amazon dispatched its AI-charged fleet Prime Air MK30 drones in late 2024, offering “ultra-fast” shipping to US shoppers in select states, including Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Kansas and Texas.
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.
Features such as the obstacle-detection cameras aid the drones in detecting and dodging people, pets and property while lowering orders into the front lawns or backyards or suburban homes.
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.
And paying customers are paying the price.
Hancock, a former high school English teacher and current college professor, placed an order for a container of blue-raspberry Torani syrup — unsure if the liquid sweetener would come in either a plastic or glass bottle.
Tragically, upon its speedy, midair arrival, the married mom witnessed her purchase being hurled to the ground by the bot, causing it to explode on impact.
“It’s everywhere,” said a hysterical Hancock while opening the damaged package for a combined 1.1 million viewers across her social media accounts.
“Should you order it by drone?” continued the brunette as she cleaned blue-stained, sticky pieces of the plastic carton out of the box. “I guess, it depends on how badly you need it.”
“This is salvageable. I can just pour [the syrup] into another bottle,”
she conceded before taking a pregnant pause, suggesting that utilizing the AI airmail might not be worth the hassle.
Tasha, a separate Amazon user, spotted the drone plunging a package near the paved driveway of a neighbour’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.”
“Prime Air’s goal is to provide customers with fast, reliable delivery across a broad selection of over 60,000 products. The response from customers using Prime Air has been overwhelmingly positive. We’ve invested in purpose-built packaging specifically engineered to protect items throughout the flight and during the final delivery to the customer,”
the statement read.
“We apologized to the customer for the inconvenience this caused and, in the rare instances when products don’t arrive as expected, we make it right. We continuously take learnings from incidents like this to improve the delivery experience for customers and the community.”
Source: New York Post