As flights began picking up early last year, the people who live closest to the drone depot started fuming over the noise. Residents appealed to the city to do something, but Texas lawmakers have essentially banned cities from regulating drones, leaving local officials powerless.
Smith, who previously worked as a city public works director in charge of big projects, says the only developments that he had seen attract this amount of opposition were landfills. The drone pushback also attracted international media attention, sparking concerns at city hall.
Public records show city officials have suggested numerous options for Amazon’s potential relocation, including a mall about 4 miles up the highway from the current building. As of December, though, College Station mayor John Nichols wrote in one email, Amazon had not shared any recent updates about the status of its search. Nichols tells WIRED that as of last week, he still hadn’t heard anything.
Lessons Learned
Some College Station residents who live near Amazon’s drone depot site say the noise and property value concerns raised by their neighbors are overblown. “What were people like when lawnmowers first came out?” says Kim Miller, who could hear the drones above her front yard and once received a dog toy by air as a gift from someone. “Progress has some drawbacks,” she says.
Raylene Lewis, a real estate agent at NextHome Realty Solutions, which has listings near the drone base, says home buyers don’t seem to mind the prospect of drones overhead. In fact, more people are curious about whether a prospective home is within Prime Air’s delivery range, she says. Lewis’ own house happens to be just outside the perimeter, but she says she would love to use the service “whether I want cookies or my medicine or pen and paper for a kid’s project.”
Lewis believes Amazon should have been more forthright about its operations and should have offered a local customer service center for people with questions and concerns. With updates still difficult to come by, some residents remain frustrated. Several of them learned about Amazon’s fleet grounding only after inquiries from WIRED.
The grounding followed two crashes—one related to rainy weather and the other operator miscommunications—of the roughly 80-pound drones, according to Bloomberg. Amazon’s Stephenson disputes the cause of the pause, saying it was initiated to “safely and properly conduct a software update” and that services will resume following FAA approval.
The accidents have introduced a new worry in College Station. “These events really bring out that Amazon is using my neighborhood as a test zone,” says Monica Williams, a teenager who opposed the company’s expansion plan.
For now, more drones are poised to hit the skies. In Dallas-Fort Worth, Amazon rival Wing is awaiting FAA review to triple its maximum deliveries per day to 30,000. In Florida, the company is seeking review to provide up to 60,000 deliveries each day, starting from Walmart supercenters in the Orlando and Tampa metro areas.
Smith and others in College Station expect that as long as drones aren’t constantly buzzing near homes—and new versions get increasingly quieter—complaints will be minimal. He believes Amazon learned a valuable lesson in his city, and he’s glad the company is adjusting its course. His garden is certainly happy to have him back.
Additional reporting by Aarian Marshall.
