Amazon’s Drone Delivery Program Is Hit by Crashes and Safety Concerns

$Amazon (AMZN.US)$ A Bloomberg investigation based on internal documents, government reports and interviews with 13 current and former employees reveals a program beset by technical challenges, high turnover and safety concerns. A serious crash in June prompted federal regulators to question the drone’s airworthiness because multiple safety features failed and the machine careened out of control, causing a brush fire. While experimental aircraft are expected to crash during test flights, current and former employees say pressure to get the program back on track has prompted some managers to take unnecessary risks that have put personnel in harm’s way.
Almost a decade, despite spending more than $2 billion and assembling a team of more than 1,000 people around the world, Amazon is a long way from launching a drone delivery service.
The Seattle-based company is under growing pressure to keep up with deep-pocketed rivals. Just last week, Alphabet Inc.’s $Alphabet-C (GOOG.US)$ $Alphabet-A (GOOGL.US)$ Wing accelerated its own drone testing program by starting to ferry packages to shoppers from Walgreens in a 90-square-mile suburban area north of $Walmart (WMT.US)$ and United Parcel Service have their own drone programs in varying stages of development.