Over the past few months, Amazon has been rapidly deploying its Prime delivery drones to cities across the US, from Arizona to Florida.
The drones promise to enable the delivery of small parcels to suburbanites in under two hours, for a modest fee of $4.99. But as more and more videos are starting to show, they might also be delivering a lot of broken glass.
In one clip, teacher-turned-influencer Tamara Hancock explores what happens if you order something fragile. In the comments under a previous video about Amazon drone delivery that shows the drones dropping cargo from a surprising height, the “number one question is, what if [I order] something fragile?” Hancock says in her latest.
To test it, she bought a container of blue raspberry syrup, to be delivered by drone. She notes that the bottle could be plastic or glass, but since “it does drop from 10 feet in the air,” it could go bust either way.
After Hancock waits an hour or so for the drone to descend, the moment arrives and the drone plops Hancock’s syrup directly onto the concrete, which isn’t a good sign.
“It’s definitely broken,” the influencer observes as she surveys the damage, a sticky mess of blue raspberry ooze. The bottle ended up being plastic, so if that can’t survive, it’s extremely unlikely a glass one will.
I tried ordering a breakable item by drone! (It didn’t go well)
Hancock’s clip isn’t the only one making the rounds. Take a delivery captured in Nashville just a few days ago, one of Amazon’s latest testing grounds for drone service. The clip, likely captured by the customer, shows a hulking white-and-blue drone descend down beneath the treeline, not unlike a dog trying to do its business.
Unlike a dog, the Prime drone keeps a healthy distance of 10 feet away from the ground at all times. When it drops it load — which plops out of a compartment on the thing’s underside — the package tumbles all the way down to the ground, rolling a little on impact.
This seems to be the norm for most Amazon drone deliveries (for an added bonus, the powerful drone propellers will even stir up your yard, kicking up any loose leaves or debris you forgot to rake up.)
As Hancock puts it in her video: “should you order it by drone? I guess it depends on how badly you need it.”
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