Amazon drone division layoffs
02-01-2023, 02:14 PM
#1
Occasional box hauler
Thread Starter
Joined APC: Jan 2018
Posts: 1,683
Amazon drone division layoffs
Prime Air
Amazon’s drone delivery unit saw widespread layoffs, with employees at sites in Washington, Oregon, Texas and California getting cut, CNBC previously reported. Sources familiar with the matter told CNBC that employees in the design, maintenance, systems engineering, flight testing and flight operations units were part of the layoffs.
I feel bad for the engineers trying to destroy my job.
Amazon’s drone delivery unit saw widespread layoffs, with employees at sites in Washington, Oregon, Texas and California getting cut, CNBC previously reported. Sources familiar with the matter told CNBC that employees in the design, maintenance, systems engineering, flight testing and flight operations units were part of the layoffs.
I feel bad for the engineers trying to destroy my job.
02-02-2023, 06:17 AM
#2
New Hire
Joined APC: Feb 2021
Posts: 5
Originally Posted by tnkrdrvr
Prime Air
Amazon’s drone delivery unit saw widespread layoffs, with employees at sites in Washington, Oregon, Texas and California getting cut, CNBC previously reported. Sources familiar with the matter told CNBC that employees in the design, maintenance, systems engineering, flight testing and flight operations units were part of the layoffs.
I feel bad for the engineers trying to destroy my job.
Amazon’s drone delivery unit saw widespread layoffs, with employees at sites in Washington, Oregon, Texas and California getting cut, CNBC previously reported. Sources familiar with the matter told CNBC that employees in the design, maintenance, systems engineering, flight testing and flight operations units were part of the layoffs.
I feel bad for the engineers trying to destroy my job.
Don't worry, Boeing is picking them up
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...uverify%20wall
02-02-2023, 11:27 PM
#5
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jun 2015
Position: Fetal in the hub
Posts: 410
Best post I've seen today
"Yesterdays news: Tech workers get laid off by companies realizing that self driving cars are never going to happen…
Today’s news: Boeing hires recently laid off tech workers to create self piloting planes.
"Yesterdays news: Tech workers get laid off by companies realizing that self driving cars are never going to happen…
Today’s news: Boeing hires recently laid off tech workers to create self piloting planes.
02-03-2023, 01:13 AM
#6
Super Moderator
Joined APC: Jun 2006
Posts: 3,945
Of all the issues in our world that we could solve, it will forever escape me why we are dead set on taking humans out of everything. Honestly, there is probably no better career with potential earnings and job stability YOY gains right now than the trades. It’s not glamorous, but if I were graduating high school right now, I’d be a fool not to look long and hard at being a plumber.
As a whole, we are perpetually working to create our own obsolescence.
As a whole, we are perpetually working to create our own obsolescence.
Last edited by usmc-sgt; 02-03-2023 at 02:29 AM.
02-03-2023, 11:35 AM
#7
Disinterested Third Party
Joined APC: Jun 2012
Posts: 6,026
Of all the things that can force me out of a job, from a lost medical to a violation to employers going bankrupt, some pimple faced kid flying a quadcopter to drop off a box of panties of the week to a housewife in detroit who pad the extra fifty bucks...is not remotely a concern.
Anyone here who tells me they're out of work because a quadcopter stole their employment, that this mythical job of their was flying fifteen miles back and forth below four hundred feet to drop off a twenty pound cardboard box, one at a time, is first an idiot, second a liar, and third, full of ****.
The damn drones didn't take your job. They're glorified kids toys.
Calm down chicken little. The sky is not actually falling.
Anyone here who tells me they're out of work because a quadcopter stole their employment, that this mythical job of their was flying fifteen miles back and forth below four hundred feet to drop off a twenty pound cardboard box, one at a time, is first an idiot, second a liar, and third, full of ****.
The damn drones didn't take your job. They're glorified kids toys.
Calm down chicken little. The sky is not actually falling.
02-03-2023, 11:54 AM
#8
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Sep 2015
Posts: 666
Originally Posted by JohnBurke
Of all the things that can force me out of a job, from a lost medical to a violation to employers going bankrupt, some pimple faced kid flying a quadcopter to drop off a box of panties of the week to a housewife in detroit who pad the extra fifty bucks...is not remotely a concern.
Anyone here who tells me they're out of work because a quadcopter stole their employment, that this mythical job of their was flying fifteen miles back and forth below four hundred feet to drop off a twenty pound cardboard box, one at a time, is first an idiot, second a liar, and third, full of ****.
The damn drones didn't take your job. They're glorified kids toys.
Calm down chicken little. The sky is not actually falling.
Anyone here who tells me they're out of work because a quadcopter stole their employment, that this mythical job of their was flying fifteen miles back and forth below four hundred feet to drop off a twenty pound cardboard box, one at a time, is first an idiot, second a liar, and third, full of ****.
The damn drones didn't take your job. They're glorified kids toys.
Calm down chicken little. The sky is not actually falling.
02-03-2023, 03:57 PM
#10
Occasional box hauler
Thread Starter
Joined APC: Jan 2018
Posts: 1,683
More food for thought
The struggles to get quad copter types drones into the cargo business provides some useful context to the development of full sized autonomous freighters. Interesting info a the damage a “quad copter” has done. Imagine, a 74 sized drone doing the same. Apparently, it’s occurred to the FAA.
Amazon's Prime Air Reportedly Has Only Made a Handful of Drone Deliveries, as FAA Restrictions Have Thwarted Widespread Use (Business Insider, Feb. 2)
Since December, residents in Lockeford, California and College Station, Texas who order products on Amazon have had a chance of receiving them by drone.
But as of mid-January, only two households in California had received a total of three deliveries between them, and around five households in Texas had received packages, The Information reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the project.
The paltry numbers are surprising given the fanfare the company has drummed up about drone delivery.
In 2020, Insider reported that Amazon's Prime Air was issued an approval certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration, FAA, to use "unmanned aircraft systems" in a commercial operation. However, the FAA actually included dozens of conditions and limitations that affect its ability to operate, which the company has downplayed until recently. In the summer of 2022, Amazon announced that it had decided upon Lockeford and, subsequently, College Station, as its test sites for drone delivery.
By December 2022, Amazon had begun making deliveries to customers in the two towns.
But a recent report by The Information's Theo Wayt which examined FAA records, along with comments from FAA representatives, and Amazon employees and representatives, found that the FAA is "blocking Amazon's drones from flying over roads or people without case-by-case permission."
That's curtailed the number of deliveries Amazon's Prime Air can make.
One reason might be because Amazon's drones are pretty heavy, coming in at 80 lbs when empty, even though the packages it can carry have a weight limit of 5 lbs.
"The possibility of Amazon's nearly-90-pound drone falling from the sky onto our home, onto our car, onto our children was nerve-wracking," Insider reported Amina Alikhan, a College Station resident, saying at a public meeting last summer.
A spokesperson for the FAA provided Insider with an exemption the FAA issued to Amazon on November 9, 2022 that maintains many of the restrictions it originally put in place in an exemption it issued the company in 2020, largely preventing the company from flying over roads and people without permission.
However, the FAA's exemption to Alphabet's Wing, and Walmart's drone delivery partners Flytrex and Zipline — whose drones range between 10 lbs. to 40 lbs. empty — allow them to fly over roadways, according to The Information.
Added to that, Amazon's drones have crashed several times during testing, with one igniting an "acres-wide brush fire" in 2021 Insider reported.
Amazon's rolling layoffs — the largest in the company's history— have also drastically whittled down the company's drone safety teams in Lockeford, College Station, and the test site in Pendleton, Oregon where the fire occurred, Insider reported, citing comments from former and current employees.
A spokesperson for Amazon told Insider via email, "We have built Prime Air as a service and technology with safety as the top priority. We meet or exceed all safety standards and have obtained regulatory authorization to conduct commercial drone delivery operations. We welcome the FAA's rigorous evaluations of our operation, and we'll continue to champion the significant role that regulators play to ensure all drone companies are achieving the right design, build and operating standards."
Amazon's Prime Air Reportedly Has Only Made a Handful of Drone Deliveries, as FAA Restrictions Have Thwarted Widespread Use (Business Insider, Feb. 2)
Since December, residents in Lockeford, California and College Station, Texas who order products on Amazon have had a chance of receiving them by drone. But as of mid-January, only two households in California had received a total of three deliveries between them, and around five households in Texas had received packages, The Information reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the project.
The paltry numbers are surprising given the fanfare the company has drummed up about drone delivery.
In 2020, Insider reported that Amazon's Prime Air was issued an approval certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration, FAA, to use "unmanned aircraft systems" in a commercial operation. However, the FAA actually included dozens of conditions and limitations that affect its ability to operate, which the company has downplayed until recently. In the summer of 2022, Amazon announced that it had decided upon Lockeford and, subsequently, College Station, as its test sites for drone delivery.
By December 2022, Amazon had begun making deliveries to customers in the two towns.
But a recent report by The Information's Theo Wayt which examined FAA records, along with comments from FAA representatives, and Amazon employees and representatives, found that the FAA is "blocking Amazon's drones from flying over roads or people without case-by-case permission."
That's curtailed the number of deliveries Amazon's Prime Air can make.
One reason might be because Amazon's drones are pretty heavy, coming in at 80 lbs when empty, even though the packages it can carry have a weight limit of 5 lbs.
"The possibility of Amazon's nearly-90-pound drone falling from the sky onto our home, onto our car, onto our children was nerve-wracking," Insider reported Amina Alikhan, a College Station resident, saying at a public meeting last summer.
A spokesperson for the FAA provided Insider with an exemption the FAA issued to Amazon on November 9, 2022 that maintains many of the restrictions it originally put in place in an exemption it issued the company in 2020, largely preventing the company from flying over roads and people without permission.
However, the FAA's exemption to Alphabet's Wing, and Walmart's drone delivery partners Flytrex and Zipline — whose drones range between 10 lbs. to 40 lbs. empty — allow them to fly over roadways, according to The Information.
Added to that, Amazon's drones have crashed several times during testing, with one igniting an "acres-wide brush fire" in 2021 Insider reported.
Amazon's rolling layoffs — the largest in the company's history— have also drastically whittled down the company's drone safety teams in Lockeford, College Station, and the test site in Pendleton, Oregon where the fire occurred, Insider reported, citing comments from former and current employees.
A spokesperson for Amazon told Insider via email, "We have built Prime Air as a service and technology with safety as the top priority. We meet or exceed all safety standards and have obtained regulatory authorization to conduct commercial drone delivery operations. We welcome the FAA's rigorous evaluations of our operation, and we'll continue to champion the significant role that regulators play to ensure all drone companies are achieving the right design, build and operating standards."
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