Residents of a Texas suburb where Amazon is testing delivery drones say the drones are too loud.
The mayor of College Station, about 100 miles northwest of Houston, sent a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration last month to protest the drones, which some residents have likened to “giant beehives.”
Known as the home of Texas A&M University’s flagship campus, College Station has become a testing ground for Amazon, which is perfecting technology that will allow it to deliver products by drone within an hour of customers placing an online order.
“Since locating in College Station, neighbors adjacent to the Prime Air facility have expressed concerns to City Council about drone noise levels, particularly during takeoff and landing and some delivery operations,” College Station Mayor John Nichols wrote in the letter.
Nichols’ letter was written in response to Amazon’s request for permission to expand the pilot program from the current 200 daily flights to 469 daily flights.
Amazon wants to extend its drone deliveries beyond the current daytime hours, allowing them to run from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
The retail giant also wants to expand the drone delivery area from its current 44-mile operating range to a 174-square-mile radius from the drone port.
If Amazon’s request is approved, the drones would take off and land a total of up to 940 times, delivering one package at a time, each weighing less than 5 pounds.
College Station resident John Case told CNBC that the buzzing noise of Amazon drones has become a nuisance.
“It’s like a giant beehive,” said Case, a semi-retired orthodontist. He told CNBC. “It’s pretty loud so you can tell it’s coming.”
Case said the drones are loud enough to wake up nurses, firefighters and police officers who have just returned home from the night shift.
Residents have appealed to local College Station lawmakers to intervene in Amazon’s expansion plans.
At a city council meeting in June, a resident who lives “within 500 feet of the launch pad” played a recording of a chainsaw to highlight the noise levels produced by drones.
“Amazon is asking the FAA to approve this,” Ralph Thomas Moore, a resident who played the chainsaw sounds, told city council members in June.
“This is a huge intrusion into our personal space and has a huge impact on everyone in the neighborhood.”
The city conducted its own acoustic tests to measure the noise levels produced by drones, finding that they reach 47-61 decibels, far less than a chainsaw, which typically sounds around 125 decibels.
In 2013, then-Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced plans to develop drone delivery through Prime Air, with the goal of delivering packages within 30 minutes.
Two years later, the FAA gave Amazon permission to test drones in the US, provided the drones remained within the pilot’s line of sight and flew during daylight hours.
But the drone program has struggled to gain traction due to cost-cutting measures implemented by Bezos’ successor, Andy Jassy.
Amazon also abandoned another US testing site, in Rockford, California, just south of Sacramento, in April. The company has not said why it scaled back operations there.
Amazon said it plans to begin drone testing in Torrance, Arizona, west of Phoenix. Regulators have yet to approve the project.
The Post has reached out to Amazon for comment.
A company spokesperson told CNBC: “We appreciate the College Station community and take local feedback into consideration whenever possible when making operational decisions for Prime Air.”
“We are proud to have made thousands of deliveries and delivered to hundreds of customers,” the spokesman added.
