On a (gently) rainy December day at the companys testing variety in Oregon, not one however 2 Prime Air drones unexpectedly stopped spinning their propellers mid-flight and plunged some 200 feet to the ground.
The crashes, which damaged both airplane, occurred within minutes of each other.
According to documents from the National Transportation Safety Board, bad readings from the drones onboard lidar sensing units led the drones to believe they had actually already landed.
Their software application, thinking it was on strong ground, cluelessly cut off power to the propellers.But thats not all.
After Amazon chose to eliminate them, the drones no longer had backup sensing units that were geared up on older variations.
And these most likely wouldve prevented the drones from shutting down, per Bloombergs sources.Amazon denies this line of thinking.Bloombergs reporting is misleading, an Amazon representative informed the paper.
Statements that assume that replacing one system with another would have avoided a mishap in the past is irresponsible.Per the NTSB files, a botched software application update made thelidar sensorsmore prone to being shaken off by rain.
Lidar is brief for light detection and varying, a type of technology that uses lasers to scan surroundings in a similar manner to radar.A glitch might have been the main factor, but it definitely seems like it couldve been quickly preventable had Amazon kept the redundant system from its previous drone, the MK27.The backup sensors came in the type of two metal prongs on the bottom of the drone called squat switches.
When the drone lands, the switches are depressed, supplying verification that its on solid ground.
A source toldBloombergthat the MK27 drones software application was originally created to confirm a landing just when two of its three sensors agreed.This was gotten rid of with the MK30, and its unclear why.
Reducing expenses could be one reason, and its not uncommon to remove redundant systems to simplify a device.It could likewise be due to the fact that of a shift in how Amazon intends to provide packages with its drones, according to aBloombergsource.
The MK27 was developed to make shipments by landing in a customers lawn, with enclosed props to make them much safer.
The MK30 moved away from this and drops packages from around a lots feet in the air.This is far from the only setback Amazon has dealt with during its drone advancement, which it firstannouncedback in 2013.
In 2021, a drone crashsparked an acres-wide blazein Oregon, and outside of events like that, numerous locals living where the drones are being trialed just find them annoying.Source: Futurism