Amazon aims for delivery drones to reach 500 US neighborhoods by end of 2026

亚马逊计划到 2026 年底将无人机送货服务覆盖至美国 500 个社区

Amazon wants to grow its Prime Air delivery drone service sixfold to reach nearly 500 cities and towns across the United States by the end of 2026. The planned expansions from Amazon and its rivals could make the convenience of delivery drone services available to tens of millions more people in the coming months—but will also test more communities’ tolerance for increased noise from daily drone flights. 亚马逊计划将其 Prime Air 无人机送货服务扩大六倍，到 2026 年底覆盖全美近 500 个城镇。亚马逊及其竞争对手的扩张计划可能会在未来几个月内，让数千万民众享受到无人机送货的便利，但这也将考验更多社区对日常无人机飞行所带来的噪音的容忍度。

On August 19, Amazon announced it would soon launch Prime Air in the metropolitan areas of Chicago; Cleveland; Atlanta; Syracuse, New York; and Boise, Idaho, with more to come later in the year. Each Prime Air site offers delivery drone service within an area of about 175 square miles, with delivery times ranging from half an hour to an hour. 8 月 19 日，亚马逊宣布即将把 Prime Air 服务引入芝加哥、克利夫兰、亚特兰大、纽约州雪城以及爱达荷州博伊西等大都市区，并计划在今年晚些时候覆盖更多地区。每个 Prime Air 服务站点可覆盖约 175 平方英里的区域，配送时间在半小时到一小时之间。

Prime Air already operates out of Amazon warehouses in 10 cities across seven states. Those include primarily suburban neighborhoods of Phoenix; Tampa; Kansas City; Omaha, Nebraska; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Detroit; Houston; and San Antonio, Dallas, and Waco, Texas. 目前，Prime Air 已在全美七个州的 10 个城市通过亚马逊仓库开展运营。这些地区主要包括凤凰城、坦帕、堪萨斯城、内布拉斯加州奥马哈、路易斯安那州巴吞鲁日、底特律、休斯顿，以及德克萨斯州的圣安东尼奥、达拉斯和韦科的郊区社区。

The Amazon Prime Air expansion comes as competitor Walmart has teamed up with companies Wing and Zipline to scale up its own delivery drone service. Walmart recently celebrated the milestone of surpassing 1 million drone deliveries after operating from 66 stores across four states, and is looking to expand that service footprint to more than 270 Walmart stores by 2027. 在亚马逊扩大 Prime Air 规模的同时，竞争对手沃尔玛也与 Wing 和 Zipline 公司合作，以扩大其无人机送货服务。沃尔玛最近庆祝了其无人机配送量突破 100 万次的里程碑，目前其服务已覆盖四个州的 66 家门店，并计划到 2027 年将服务范围扩大到 270 多家门店。

Separately, Zipline also just announced a partnership with Uber aimed at scaling up to 1 million drone deliveries per day by the end of 2029. Having initially pioneered long-range drone deliveries of blood and other crucial medical supplies in Africa, Zipline has been steadily growing its US delivery operations and claims to have already made more than 2.7 million deliveries worldwide. 此外，Zipline 也刚刚宣布与 Uber 达成合作，目标是在 2029 年底前实现每天 100 万次的无人机配送量。Zipline 最初在非洲开创了血液及其他关键医疗物资的长距离无人机配送先河，目前正稳步扩大其在美国的配送业务，并声称在全球范围内已完成了超过 270 万次配送。

Even DoorDash is looking to build its own in-house delivery drone program. In July, the delivery service company announced it had received its FAA Part 135 certification to launch what it describes as DoorDash Air—though it is still in the early phases of designing its delivery drone and planning out operations. 甚至连 DoorDash 也在寻求建立自己的内部无人机配送项目。今年 7 月，该公司宣布已获得美国联邦航空管理局（FAA）的 Part 135 认证，以启动其所谓的“DoorDash Air”项目——尽管目前仍处于无人机设计和运营规划的早期阶段。

The accelerating US expansion of drone delivery services promises speedy deliveries to customers within an hour, and sometimes within minutes in the fastest cases. Such autonomous drones typically run on battery-electric power and potentially offer lower-emission, lower-cost operations without putting more vehicles on the road for last-mile deliveries. 美国无人机配送服务的加速扩张承诺为客户提供一小时内送达的快捷服务，最快甚至只需几分钟。这些自动驾驶无人机通常由电池供电，有望在不增加地面车辆进行“最后一公里”配送的情况下，实现更低排放、更低成本的运营。

However, delivery drones are still limited in how much they can carry. For example, Amazon describes its drones as being capable of handling nearly all items weighing five pounds or less that can fit within a large shoebox. Strong winds, heavy rain or snow, and extreme cold can also prevent drones from operating. 然而，无人机在载重方面仍有限制。例如，亚马逊称其无人机能够处理几乎所有重量在 5 磅（约 2.27 公斤）以下且能装进大号鞋盒的物品。强风、大雨、大雪和极端寒冷天气也会阻碍无人机的正常运行。

There have also been community concerns about safety, privacy, and especially noise pollution in neighborhoods serviced by drones. None of those issues are likely to go away as US companies ramp up delivery drone services nationwide with the regulatory approval of the US Federal Aviation Administration. 社区对无人机服务区域的安全、隐私以及尤其是噪音污染问题也表示担忧。随着美国公司在获得联邦航空管理局监管批准的情况下在全国范围内扩大无人机配送服务，这些问题短期内恐怕难以消除。

Safety records / 安全记录

Zipline appears to have the cleanest safety record despite having collectively flown its autonomous drones over 100 million miles. The company includes backup parachutes for its drones, which have apparently proven handy on a few occasions when individual drones ran into trouble while delivering Walmart orders this year. 尽管 Zipline 的自动驾驶无人机飞行总里程已超过 1 亿英里，但其安全记录似乎最为出色。该公司为无人机配备了备用降落伞，事实证明，在今年为沃尔玛配送订单时，当个别无人机遇到故障时，这些降落伞确实发挥了作用。

By comparison, Amazon Prime Air’s operations have led to several safety incidents that sometimes triggered investigations by the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board. Two Amazon delivery drones crashed into a stationary construction crane in Tolleson, Arizona, in October 2025, while another delivery drone took down an overhead Internet cable in Waco in November 2025. The federal government’s investigations into those incidents are ongoing. 相比之下，亚马逊 Prime Air 的运营导致了多起安全事故，有时甚至引发了 FAA 和美国国家运输安全委员会（NTSB）的调查。2025 年 10 月，两架亚马逊无人机在亚利桑那州托勒森撞上了一台静止的建筑起重机；2025 年 11 月，另一架无人机在韦科撞断了架空的互联网电缆。联邦政府对这些事故的调查仍在进行中。

“We trained our algorithms; we felt pretty good, but we found in the real world the performance just wasn’t good enough, and let me tell you, that was a humbling experience,” said David Carbon, vice president of Prime Air at Amazon, in a recording of an internal staff meeting in March that was obtained by CNBC. “我们训练了算法，感觉还不错，但在现实世界中，我们发现性能还不够好。我得说，那是一次令人谦卑的经历，”亚马逊 Prime Air 副总裁 David Carbon 在 CNBC 获得的一份 3 月份内部员工会议录音中说道。

The most recent incident saw a vertically ascending Amazon delivery drone collide with an apartment building before falling to the ground in Richardson, Texas, in February 2026. 最近的一起事故发生在 2026 年 2 月，德克萨斯州理查森市，一架垂直上升的亚马逊无人机撞上了一栋公寓楼后坠地。

Alphabet-owned Wing has experienced at least one notable safety incident when a food delivery drone caught fire after landing on top of overhead power lines in Brisbane, Australia, in September 2022. That forced the energy company Energex to temporarily shut down electricity service to about 2,000 people. A Wing delivery drone fulfilling Walmart orders also crashed and burned on grassy ground in Kemah, Texas, in March 2026. Alphabet 旗下的 Wing 也经历过至少一起重大安全事故：2022 年 9 月，一架食品配送无人机在澳大利亚布里斯班降落在架空电线上后起火。这迫使能源公司 Energex 暂时切断了约 2000 人的电力供应。2026 年 3 月，一架执行沃尔玛订单的 Wing 无人机也在德克萨斯州凯马的草地上坠毁并烧毁。

Losing the sound of silence / 失去宁静

The most common complaints about delivery drones have less to do with safety than with the persistent noise. Some people have described hearing delivery drones multiple times a day over their houses. 关于无人机配送最常见的抱怨与其说是安全问题，不如说是持续不断的噪音。一些居民描述称，他们每天多次听到无人机在自家屋顶上方飞过。

“It’s the equivalent of a flying leaf blower, lawnmower 20 feet over my house, 50 times a day,” said Joshua Brent, a resident of Hazel Park, Michigan, in an interview with TV station WDIV. “My dogs lose their minds and get upset.” “这相当于每天有 50 次，一个飞行的吹叶机或割草机在离我房子 20 英尺（约 6 米）高的地方飞过，”密歇根州黑泽尔帕克的居民 Joshua Brent 在接受 WDIV 电视台采访时说，“我的狗都快疯了，非常烦躁。”

Multiple posts on the topic of delivery drone noise have also appeared on community-focused subreddits on Reddit. Although Wing and Zipline drones are sometimes mentioned, many posts tend to focus on the noise from Amazon’s delivery drones. “Some days I hear them 5 or 6 times back and forth every 15 minutes,” commented Reddit user Puzzleheaded_Belt740 in a subreddit for Royal Oak, Michigan. “They are so LOUD, it sounds like a small helicopter hovering.” Reddit 上以社区为中心的版块也出现了大量关于无人机噪音的帖子。虽然 Wing 和 Zipline 的无人机有时会被提及，但许多帖子更关注亚马逊无人机的噪音。“有时候我每 15 分钟就能听到它们来回飞 5 到 6 次，”Reddit 用户 Puzzleheaded_Belt740 在密歇根州皇家橡树市的版块中评论道，“它们太吵了，听起来就像一架小型直升机在盘旋。”

Some Reddit users described attempting to ask Amazon customer service to reroute drones around their house but without much success. Others said they have filed… 一些 Reddit 用户描述称，他们曾尝试要求亚马逊客服让无人机绕过他们的房子，但收效甚微。其他人则表示他们已经提交了……