Amazon’s Prime Air autonomous drones to reach 500 US cities

Amazon plans to expand its Prime Air drone delivery service to nearly 500 cities and towns across the US by the end of 2026. That build-out amounts to six times the number of locations Prime Air serves today, extending the option to communities with tens of millions of customers, according to Amazon.

Reaching that many locations without adding pilots to each flight depends on the drones’ own decision-making systems rather than a large ground staff monitoring individual flights. Prime Air’s fleet runs on what Amazon calls “highly autonomous” flight software, engineered to keep functioning safely and predictably when something unexpected happens mid-flight.

A Detect-and-Avoid system sits at the centre of that setup, continuously scanning the airspace and surroundings around each drone much like a pilot checking for other aircraft. That scanning lets the drone spot obstacles on its own and make real-time flight decisions without a remote operator stepping in.

Onboard cameras and sensors handle navigation, obstacle detection, and the delivery drop itself. Amazon has stated the cameras do not track indiv...