Drone delivery firms try to cut noise as Axios and IEEE Spectrum report growing neighbourhood opposition

TLDR

• Axios reports Zipline says new software cuts total sound exposure per flight by 68 per cent, per its own modelling.¹
• IEEE Spectrum reports Baton Rouge residents complained about Amazon MK30 flights; a councilman says 70 per cent were rerouted.²
• Fifteen states and Harris County, Texas sued the FAA on 28 September over environmental-assessment rules, IEEE Spectrum says.²

Axios reported on 4 November that drone delivery companies are working to reduce noise as neighbourhood opposition threatens their expansion plans, noting that Amazon last week withdrew its application for a drone delivery hub in Westborough, Massachusetts, near Boston, after residents and lawmakers raised noise, safety and privacy concerns, while leaving open a possible return.¹ It says Zipline has taught its drones to fly more quietly with "dynamic flying" software that lets each drone choose the quietest route in real time based on wind, speed and altitude, and that, according to Zipline's modelling, the upgrade reduces total sound exposure per flight by 68 per cent and peak sound levels by 24 per cent.¹ Axios adds that Wing uses low-pitch propellers and flies higher, lowering packages on a tether, and that DoorDash's new drone uses six slow-spinning propellers designed to produce less noise, while cautioning that quieter does not necessarily mean quiet.¹

IEEE Spectrum, the same day, describes the experience of residents near an Amazon Prime Air distribution centre in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, about 3.2 km (2 miles) from one couple's home, where Amazon flies its MK30 drones.² A couple say the noise has bothered them since early September, and a resident says they counted a drone every 48 seconds on a Saturday morning; residents also raised concerns about drones over playgrounds, schools and a cemetery, a forced landing on a highway median, and cameras.² The article cites the FAA's environmental assessment for the facility, which it says envisages 1,000 daily delivery operations between 6 a.m. and 10:30 p.m., 100 of them (10 per cent) in the early and late periods of 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.² A local councilman says Amazon has since rerouted 70 per cent of drone flights elsewhere; IEEE Spectrum notes that drones may not fly over highways, so the flights likely moved over other residential areas, and the article does not quote Amazon on the rerouting.²

IEEE Spectrum quotes David Ison of the Washington State Department of Transportation saying companies' public outreach "has probably been more of an afterthought than it should have been", and that US law on rights to the airspace just above a property is unsettled.² It reports that Wing's 2018 trial in suburban Canberra shut down months after activists organised, that Cobb County, Georgia, denied a zoning request for a Wing facility in April, and that on 28 September 15 US states and Harris County, Texas sued the FAA to stop it easing its environmental assessment rules for drone sites.² It says companies including Amazon, Wing and Zipline describe their drones as quiet and safe, and that Amazon says most customer feedback is "overwhelmingly positive".²

Why it matters: Axios and IEEE Spectrum both report neighbourhood noise opposition to drone delivery, but Zipline's 68 per cent figure is its own modelling and the Baton Rouge rerouting figure is a councilman's, with Amazon not quoted on it.¹²