Amazon Halts Drone Deliveries in Texas, Arizona; Updating SoftwareAmazon Halts Drone Deliveries in Texas, Arizona; Updating Software

Amazon has halted drone deliveries in Texas and Arizona as the company makes software updates to its MK30 delivery drone. 

The company announced on Jan. 17 that it was temporarily putting a hold on drone operations to make software changes to the drone. Services are expected to resume once the updates are completed and approved by the FAA. 

“Safety underscores everything we do in Prime Air and our MK30 drone is safe and compliant,” said Sam Stephenson, Amazon spokesperson. “It’s designed to safely respond to unknown events in a known way, and the overall architecture of the drone has performed as expected.”

The pause in operations was unrelated to drone crashes at the company’s Pendleton, Oregon, testing site in December. Stephenson said that incident is not the primary reason for the pause and that Prime Air continued to deliver safely and within federal compliance until Amazon voluntarily pauses service on Jan. 17. 

"These incidents occurred at our private and closed testing facility, where the purpose of these tests is to push our aircraft past their limits – it would be irresponsible not to do that,” Stephenson said. “We expect incidents like these to occur in those tests, and they help us continue to improve the safety of our operations. Our commercial operations with the MK30 drone have been conducted safely and in compliance with all FAA regulations and requirements.”

Related:Amazon Launches New Drone; Expands Phoenix Deliveries

In November, Amazon announced it expanded drone delivery in Phoenix and offered a first look at its MK30 drones. The MK30 also started making deliveries in College Station Texas in that same month. 

The MK30 drone was developed with innovative, safety-critical features in mind, Amazon said, allowing it to deliver packages to homes with smaller backyards and in more densely populated areas. 

“The MK30, which went through an aerospace-grade certification process in collaboration with the FAA, flies twice as far as our previous drones, is about 50% quieter to the human ear and is built to fly in rainy weather,” Amazon said.