GoKawiilAmazon said Wednesday it plans to offer drone deliveries in nearly 500 U.S. cities and towns by the end of the year, a sign of momentum for a project that's been slow to develop since founder Jeff Bezos first laid out his vision for the service almost 13 years ago.
The planned expansion for Prime Air would represent a sixfold increase from its current footprint, the company said in a blog post.
Amazon's latest update comes five months after David Carbon, vice president of Prime Air, spoke confidently about the program and laid out ambitious growth plans in an internal all-hands meeting, according to a recording obtained by CNBC.
Carbon projected at the time that Prime Air will make 1 million deliveries this year, and said Amazon has the "highest demand drone delivery service in the industry." The company said Wednesday it made hundreds of thousands of deliveries so far this year, and makes thousands daily.
Bezos, who stepped down as CEO five years ago, pledged in 2013 to build a network of drones to deliver small packages in 30 minutes or less. Since then, the program has faced regulatory delays and staff cuts, as well as technical challenges and pushback from some communities where it conducted early pilots.
Amazon in 2024 received a critical greenlight from regulators to conduct long-range drone deliveries, and over the past year has expanded beyond initial markets near Dallas and Phoenix to 11 metro areas, with six other locations coming online soon. Residents in some of those markets continue to raise concerns about drone noise and privacy and how those issues could hurt property values.