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It’s raining boxes: Amazon drones overwhelm Texas suburb

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A speedy blessing, or an irritating curse?
I thought getting items in a day or two, or even a week, was just fine.
But admittedly, these seem more efficient that a person having to drive 
a truck or car through our streets.

from Seattle Times
It’s raining boxes: Amazon drones overwhelm Texas suburb

A drone delivers a package from Amazon to Kristi Graham’s home in 
Richardson, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, this month. (Jordan Vonderhaar / 
The New York Times )
Image 1 of 3NEXT IMAGE

By JULIET MACUR The New York Times

RICHARDSON, Texas — The sound came out of nowhere.

It began as an unnerving high-pitched hum, like a mosquito flying around 
a dark room at bedtime, and it grew louder as it drew closer. A family 
lounging in a backyard pool in Richardson, Texas, just north of Dallas, 
couldn’t help but notice it.

“There’s another one coming this way!” shouted Eric Anderson from his 
pool float, pointing to an area above a tall line of trees. His 
9-year-old daughter, Isla, removed her swim goggles for a clearer look 
at what could be a scene from science fiction.

Within a minute or so, an 83-pound drone with six blue arms and whirring 
propellers appeared in a corner of the sky before zipping over nearby 
houses, looking like a cross between a mechanical dragonfly and an 
X-wing fighter, and buzzing like a battalion of bees.

The drone’s mission: delivering an Amazon package.

The single cardboard box of cargo held a maximum of 5 pounds and was 
loaded into the drone at Amazon’s distribution center less than a mile 
from the backyard pool. It could have been bound for anywhere within a 7 
½-mile radius of takeoff.

Richardson city officials gave Amazon zoning approval to start the drone 
delivery service in December as part of the company’s nascent Prime Air 
program. It promises customers tens of thousands of items — nail 
trimmers for pets, ankle bracelets, handcrafted, razor-tipped bread 
lames for scoring sourdough — in as little as 30 minutes. The delivery 
could be free or cost up to $4.99.

The Federal Aviation Administration, which governs U.S. airspace, gave 
Amazon clearance to fly its drones.

Now many other parts of the U.S. can expect their own drone deliveries, 
a welcome convenience for some, but an invasion for others.

Last month, Amazon announced that Prime Air deliveries would expand to 
500 towns and cities by the end of the year. Other companies are also 
using drone deliveries, and the FAA has forecast that by 2030 the number 
could explode to more than 3.5 million, up from the current number of 
897,000 registered drones.

“What’s happening in Richardson is about to happen all over the country, 
and people are finally going to believe us that having all these drones 
flying around is actually a big, big problem,” said Scott Bratcher, who 
is the president of his homeowners association in a Richardson 
neighborhood that residents have called a drone highway.

He added, “The government and the FAA have failed us.”

The agency said that it would soon be issuing new rules for drone 
flight. But in July, after studying the environmental impact of 
commercial delivery drones like Amazon’s, the agency decided that they 
did not pose a “significant impact.”

For some people, the futuristic novelty of the airborne deliveries has 
been something to celebrate. They have shared their delivery videos 
online, cheering as their packages are plopped, bounced and sometimes 
slid onto their yards and driveways.

Lindsay Hamilton, a spokesperson for Amazon, said this month that the 
customer response to the deliveries has been “overwhelmingly positive” 
and “so far this year, fewer than 1%” of inquiries into the program have 
been related to noise. She compared the drone noise to a window fan on 
low, and said, during delivery, it’s quieter than a passing car.

But in the Richardson neighborhoods near the Amazon distribution center, 
any joy about the innovation has been muted by the sound of dozens of 
drones, if not more than a hundred of them, flying by every day, 
sometimes so loud that they sound like flying lawn mowers. (Other 
companies, including Walmart, are also using delivery drones, but 
different types, in the area.)

Under city regulations, deliveries can operate from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m., 
and Amazon has assured residents that the drones would fly outbound at 
an average of 225 feet high. The maximum they can fly, according to the 
FAA, is 400 feet.

Before the drones arrived, Richardson was a suburb known as a hub for 
tech and telecom, and its residents already were living with 
technology’s intrusions. A massive new AI data center sits across the 
street from one neighborhood, and as recently as last month, 20 Flock 
cameras, which read license plates and track vehicles, were used at 14 
major intersections.

For those people living closest to the Amazon flight paths, the 
ever-droning deliveries pose the most serious threat to their private 
and peaceful life.

“We hear them zoom, zoom, zoom, back and forth from morning until past 
dinnertime,” said Nikki Anderson, whose extended family spotted the 
drone — and many more — one Friday this month. She has long prized the 
serenity of her backyard, with its undulating pool and birds chirping 
from landscaping that included a shrub sculpted into the shape of a 
giant heart.

Now the drones have ruined that, Anderson said. She can hear them from 
inside, even with the television on, and especially on weekends, when 
deliveries seem to pick up.

She asked the city if Amazon could at least limit the hours or days that 
it flies drones, but her requests were not granted. Greg Sowell, a city 
spokesperson, said Richardson has not put any further timing 
restrictions on Amazon since the City Council approved the drones last year.

“Some people might think, wow, this is really, really cool, and the 
technology is really cool,” Anderson said. “But people around here, 
we’re thinking, ‘Ugh, is there anything we can do to stop this?’ We 
can’t live like this.”

During delivery, Amazon’s drones descend to about 13 feet above the 
ground and hover as the package tumbles out of an open door and onto a 
customer’s property — often with all the care of a bouncer tossing a 
rabble-rouser from a bar.

One online video shows an Amazon drone dropping a package into a pool. 
Another caught one smashing into an apartment building and crashing near 
a sidewalk. A recent video showed a drone atop a grassy median of a road 
in Baton Rouge, La., sitting there like a lost puppy.

Amazon said its program is always improving, and Hamilton, the 
spokesperson, added that the company had adjusted its operations, based 
on feedback from residents.

Kristi Graham, an administrator for a music education company, was one 
resident who complained to Amazon, upset about drones flying over her 
backyard, where her family swims and barbecues.

After her complaint, she said Amazon did change the route — to the front 
of her house.

She is now part of a neighborhood group fighting the company, but the 
appeal of fast delivery remains strong. Last May, Graham’s daughter 
ordered deli ham from Walmart using a coupon for drone delivery. She had 
been in a rush to make a sandwich.

Graham had only one thing to say: “How could you?”

She and some of her neighbors, including Anderson, are now sending 
emails to officials of other cities, including El Paso, Texas, and 
Richmond, Va., where Amazon’s drones are about to descend. Don’t trust 
Amazon’s claims, they say.

The drones, they write, “have been a disaster for the City of Richardson.”

Graham and others also are concerned about security.

According to Hamilton, of Amazon, its drones use multiple cameras and 
sensors for navigation. The images are stored on encrypted drives that 
only authorized personnel can access later, she said, adding that the 
data is solely used to improve safety and customer service.

Stephanie Puri, a researcher in the video game industry, is skeptical.

“Amazon hasn’t always been the most transparent with how they use and 
reuse data,” she said, wondering if she might start seeing ads for pool 
equipment after a drone spies her pool.

“If it’s your backyard and you want to sunbathe naked, that’s your 
property and you do you,” she said. “But, oh, Amazon can see you.”

Puri, like some of her neighbors, has set up a drone tracker. On a 
recent Friday, she recorded what she called a slow day: 52 drones 
overhead, including three between 150 and 170 feet up, close enough to 
distract her while she was inside. Her cat Eden growls when they fly 
that low.

When a protest was held in front of the Amazon distribution center in 
June, Puri took part. People waved signs like “Too low, too loud, too 
many.” And she said many Amazon delivery drivers, whose jobs may be at 
risk, honked their horns in support.

Brian Rowe, an executive in tech and cybersecurity, has shown up to City 
Council meetings to complain. He has considered many methods of clearing 
the drones above his home, even looking into commercial anti-drone 
technology. But that technology, mostly for military use, costs tens of 
thousands of dollars, he said.

“What can we do?” Rowe said.

He senses other problems looming. Nearly three weeks ago, a company 
began testing air taxis in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

They look like Amazon drones, but are much, much bigger.

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It’s raining boxes: Amazon drones overwhelm Texas suburb a425couple <a425couple@hotmail.com> - 2026-09-27 15:08 -0700

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