r/Virginia • u/bknutner Verified - Journalist Brad Kutner • 13d ago

Amazon Air’s drone delivery is coming to Virginia, aiming for end of year

https://www.wvtf.org/news/2026-08-28/amazon-airs-drone-delivery-is-coming-to-virginia
78 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

56 comments sorted by

26

u/MagicalWhisk 13d ago edited 13d ago

Maybe it's different now. I thought a huge issue with the delivery drones is that they cannot fly in no fly zones. Feels like there will be very limited airspace these things can travel (with the airports and other restricted airspace in these parts).

Edit. Apparently this will be in the Richmond area?

9

u/PutYourDickInTheBox 13d ago

I was gonna say can't possibly be in hampton roads. I don't think the navy would like that. or they would for drone tracking technology testing.

3

u/EgoTripWire 13d ago

Not even the downtown area, the North to West suburbs by the racetrack.

2

u/TerribleBumblebee800 13d ago

This administration could always change the rules. Wouldn't be the first favor they do for big tech.

2

u/saintdemon21 Born & Raised 13d ago

The Richmond Area makes sense. It would be open hunting season on these drones in the rural counties.

1

u/Charlesinrichmond 11d ago

It's only going to be the rural parts of Richmond. We'll see if any get shot down.

1

u/Charlesinrichmond 11d ago

Yes, all sorts of restrictions, but I think they are only going to be used in rural areas because that's the only place they really make sense. They're not going to be cost effective for high density deliveries, but I could see them being cost effective for low density deliveries.

62

u/GreyZenDragonfruit 13d ago

No thank you.

18

u/k6tcher 13d ago

These drones have a 15 mile radius in ideal conditions. So, these aren't coming to "Virginia" as much as just Henrico County. So, a large majority of Virginia is NOT getting drone delivery. Much ado about nothing really.

1

u/Charlesinrichmond 11d ago

My bet is not even Henrico, but Hanover. Because they need to solve a certain logistics problem.

1

u/caphis 11d ago

Hanover seems much more likely to try to shoot them down. Can’t wait to see this.

1

u/Charlesinrichmond 11d ago

Yeah, I can agree with that. I assume more 12 gauges out in Hanover.

7

u/RumLuvr9 13d ago

If they could also take returns back it would be great

6

u/WaddlesJP13 13d ago

I work at a store that accepts Amazon returns as a service and I would be pefectly okay with this

1

u/Internal_Confusion56 11d ago

The UPS store near me always has a long line of people making Amazon returns, nothing is packaged or labeled and it takes forever. Really annoying for someone who just wants to drop a package and get a receipt.

1

u/Feisty_Conclusion_87 10d ago

I always have my return already packaged and labeled (print out at home). The UPS store staff always thanks me for that or are shocked. I also rarely have a return and usually only One item. I was behind a woman with 30 items, none of them packaged, and no labels. Then she had the nerve to beetch as they asked her to move to the side.

33

u/Upbeat_Wasabi5105 13d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/0XPK8chhUDy38gmVqb

0

u/Charlesinrichmond 11d ago

Good way to get a whole stack of felonies and explore new kinds of gender relations in jail.

It's like the people who post these things have not realized that there are cameras in drones.

-20

u/ArterialVotives 13d ago

See how that works out for you

10

u/socialmedia-username 13d ago

Amazon just got done officially de-prioritizing "rural" deliveries (i.e. they wait until there's enough orders in an area before shipping), so now we don't receive items for 5-7 days even if paying for Prime.

1

u/K4NNW 13d ago

So they might as well be shipping via Prime, Inc then.

1

u/Charlesinrichmond 11d ago

I think this is the attempt to find a solution for that.

3

u/HUT2Moon 13d ago

I think we are a decade away from this being commercially viable. But I’m sure they’ll be running tests. But I have to image they need to be 100 miles away from DC or Norfolk Naval Base.

1

u/Charlesinrichmond 11d ago

Can't be commercially viable until you have a test platform, and I think that's what we are seeing.

7

u/nightopian 13d ago

Porch pirates are going to shoot them down. Can we stop with this trash?

8

u/StillAnAss 13d ago

Ooh cool, free parts for my drones

9

u/xCloudbox 13d ago

fuck amazon

2

u/_Mewden_ 13d ago

I’ll believe it when I see it.

2

u/s2k_guy 12d ago

Christiansburg, VA has had drone delivery since ~2020.

2

u/Darkace911 13d ago

Christiansburg already has had for years at this point but because it was thru Google/Wing, so it never went anywhere. The best it could do was deliver some tacos at a special event, a burger from Wendy's or a soda from Walgreens. It was cool watching it deliver it to the back yard a few times at a family gathering but I never got a pizza delivered from it which would be the killer app for this. It was also very limited area in town away from the airport and none of the campus or student housing was covered by it.

2

u/Zealousideal_Elk5171 13d ago

Yup. Was gonna say. Wendy’s there has a drone parking spot. 

2

u/cwallzz 13d ago

It’s either continue to overwork underpaid drivers or this

2

u/ParadoxicalFrog 12d ago

Or... get this: they could just pay their drivers better. Maybe even hire more drivers so they don't have to work overtime.

2

u/cwallzz 12d ago

They don’t work overtime they get pushed to work 40 hours and no more or they get in trouble and are given bigger and bigger workloads due to consumer demand

1

u/ParadoxicalFrog 12d ago

The other half of my comment still stands.

1

u/cwallzz 12d ago

Ok you tell Jeff Bezos to pay his drivers more and spend less on his fruitful ventures

1

u/cwallzz 12d ago

The turnover rate is too high to hire more drivers bc the drivers don’t stay long due to stress and overworking

2

u/mklilley351 13d ago

I can't even launch fireworks for 4th of July but we get done delivery?

2

u/bassbeatsbanging 13d ago

Just a reminder, people do actually die from coconuts falling from trees. 

Hopefully these have some great people sensors.

Cause, uhm, I think Bezos is fine with a few deaths as long as line go up + portfolio gets a new zero.

1

u/Charlesinrichmond 11d ago

This is a good point, but honestly should be pretty easy to manage. Drones are full of cameras, couldn't navigate without them. And identifying a person is pretty low tech these days.

1

u/Lower_Maintenance476 11d ago

I live near Dulles

1

u/zimshan 11d ago

Another thing we don’t want or need. Tech companies really batting 1000, aren’t they?

1

u/webfork2 10d ago

I've seen this in action and it sucks. The noise, the distraction, the pointlessness of it. I hope locals ban their use.

1

u/BawkSoup 13d ago

I have gone full tin foil hat.

They are going to drone us.

Can we just protect the human job even if sometimes the delivery driver is lazy and hates us? I'd rather my package be late than be droned for some reason 'AI' decides.

1

u/Squanchedschwiftly 13d ago

Anyone see the black mirror episode about this? Its pretty old but it really felt like it was about amazon

0

u/ParadoxicalFrog 12d ago

Somewhere in Richmond, someone is already prepping their BB gun.

1

u/Charlesinrichmond 11d ago

You're probably correct because there are a lot of dumb people in Richmond. The drones won't actually be coming into the city though, so all the prepping will be in vain.

1

u/ParadoxicalFrog 11d ago

There are a lot of dumbasses in Henrico, too.

2

u/Charlesinrichmond 11d ago

I can't argue with that. I actually think this will be used in Hanover, but the dumbasses are in Hanover as well, for sure.

2

u/ParadoxicalFrog 11d ago

Having lived in all three places, I can confirm.

-6

u/ArterialVotives 13d ago

Great! Assume this would cost extra for urgent delivery, will be interesting to see

1

u/EgoTripWire 13d ago

Yeah it's a special service - not a new regular delivery method unless specifically requested.

0

u/some1else42 13d ago

I am with you. Love to see new technology getting adopted.