It looked like something out of a Pixar movie. Traditional messaging was no longer (so) necessary, and instead of guys on motorbikes or vans, drones would deliver packages to your home. Drones flying in harmony everywhere.
That was Amazon’s dream, but it doesn’t seem to be going well. At least that’s what’s happening in the UK, where the project is underway Amazon Prime Air He has a complicated future. There were more than 100 layoffs. and employees talk about how the project was “internally collapsing” and “dysfunctional”.
Myths and realities of a project that didn’t quite take off
Five years ago, Amazon talked about how it was starting trials of delivering parcels in the UK using drones. Things seemed to be looking good and Amazon didn’t stop innovating. It even created a curious self-destruct system to prevent the drone from harming the civilian population in the event of a crash.
However, word of a revolutionary package delivery message has been circulating for some time now. Two years ago, we learned that Amazon had developed a new version of the company’s messenger drone, which was also strengthened in artificial intelligence systems, but since then, the project has barely seemed to move forward.
This was confirmed by some anonymous employees in interviews with Wired UK Amazon has laid off more than 100 Amazon Prime Air employees therebut also “dozens” of positions were transferred to other projects.
The project began to enter a dangerous phase at the end of 2019, when The turnover of employees and managers was frequent. Stress—one employee recounted having three different bosses in one month—and chaos seemed to dominate the project, which was trying to solve problems with airborne threats (birds) and surface recognition on the ground.
Added to this problem is the problem of some drones which They were getting heavier (about 27 kg) and that they had to land (or stay very close to the ground) to drop the package, which made things very complicated compared to staying at a certain height and simply “dropping” the packages.
Technical and management problems – with managers “disconnected from reality” according to interviewed staff – caused the project to be classified as “non-functional”. For those employees drone messaging dream ‘never takes off’.
Through | Cable UK