The US Federal Aviation Administration will allow Amazon to expand its Prime Air drone delivery program by permitting its drones to fly beyond visual line of sight, Amazon announced Thursday.
Also known as BVLOS in the aviation industry, this will allow Amazon to fly its drone out of the controller's visual line of sight so that the tech giant can make more deliveries to customers farther away. Amazon says its pilots will actively monitor and control its Prime Air drones using other tracking tech once the drones are out of sight, and has tested its drones around planes, helicopters, and even a hot air balloon in flight.
"We’ve spent years developing, testing, and refining our onboard detect-and-avoid system to ensure our drones can detect and avoid obstacles in the air," Amazon says in its post.
The company plans to expand its MK-27 drone deliveries in the US, beginning with its College Station, Texas location, which is just northwest of Houston. Last month, Amazon stopped testing its delivery drones in California and is moving forward in Texas and Arizona instead. Amazon wants to add drones to its broader delivery network sometime "later this year," with the long-term goal of delivering 500 million packages by drone before 2030.
Drone deliveries are just one of Amazon's many automation efforts, however. The company previously rolled out "Just Walk Out" technology to do away with in-shop cashiers and self-checkouts, but has since said it will stop using the tech in some of its US locations. It recently announced "Dash Carts," which are high-tech shopping carts with screens that allow customers to self-checkout as they shop.
Back in October, Amazon unveiled its newest delivery drone, the MK-30, which Amazon says can handle "light rain" and deliver packages weighing up to five pounds in less than an hour.