Amazon’s Drone Service, Prime Air, Severs Relationship with Commercial Drone Alliance, Referencing Safety Issues

Citing concerns over airspace safety, Amazon’s drone delivery service, Prime Air, has dropped the Commercial Drone Alliance (CDA) as one of its advocacy groups. CDA represents a variety of commercial drone manufacturers and drone traffic management service providers, including Skydio, Zipline, Alphabet/Google’s Wing Aviation, among ‌others. Amazon is at odds with CDA over electronic systems designed to deconflict traffic between drones and other aircraft. Amazon’s newer drone models are equipped with a system known as DAA, which can “detect and avoid” other aircraft. Amazon says that system has prevented midair collisions between its drones and other aircraft on two occasions during testing and that CDA has not advocated for detect and avoid technology beyond densely populated areas because CDA finds it “unnecessary on safety grounds and too difficult or costly to achieve.” Amazon argued that relying solely on Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast, known as ADS-B, would not be enough for safe drone integration into the national airspace. “The United States has built the safest and most complex aviation system in the world by relying on redundancy and layered safeguards rather than single solutions,” Amazon said in a statement last week, “This requires rigorous, capability-based standards – including requirements that mandate drone technologies capable of detecting ⁠non-cooperative crewed aircraft.” The term non-cooperative crewed aircraft refers to planes or helicopters that do not transmit active identification or position signals and do not communicate with air traffic control. Amazon said, “A framework built on a single point of detection is a framework built on a single point of failure.” 

With Amazon’s separation from CDA and its reasons for its departure, it will be interesting to see how the FAA will proceed with its proposed rule enabling drones to operate beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS). The comment period to solicit feedback for the proposed rule closed last month, including proposals related to the use of drones required to equip with ADS-B and provide right of way to a manned aircraft if it is equipped with ADS-B, but not detect and avoid technology, in airspace that is not densely populated. It would also provide an exemption from right-of-way or ADS-B equipage, let alone detect and avoid technology, in shielded areas defined as areas where no manned aircraft are expected to operate, including areas within 50 feet of powerlines and substations, railroad tracks, bridges and pipelines. NAAA worked diligently with other government agencies, industry associations, and coalitions commenting to FAA on how the proposed rule would severely compromise the safety of manned aerial application operations. The proposed rules have not yet been finalized.

Amazon is a member of other organizations that advocate for drones, including the Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International, General Aviation Manufacturers Association, and the Small UAV Coalition.