Drone Delivery Could Cut Pollution. Can Communities Live With the Noise?
Key takeaways
- Pace, the chief operating officer of a software company, works from home in Richardson, a suburb north of Dallas.
- That changed when Amazon’s Prime Air delivery drones began to buzz near his home.
- “There are always planes flying overhead, and they’re loud,” Pace said. “But the drone noise is higher-pitched.
Why this matters: environmental and climate reporting with long-term consequences.
Republish. A delivery drone takes off from Amazon’s SXT8 warehouse in Richardson, Texas. Credit: Andrew Liu/Inside Climate News Related Microsoft’s Clean Energy Reversal Collides With Virginia’s Climate Goals As Tech Groups Predict Huge Pennsylvania Data-Center Growth, Critics Say Some Bills Would Reduce Local Control The Farming Industry Has Embraced ‘Precision Agriculture’ and AI, but Critics Question Its Environmental Benefits Share This Article Republish Most Popular Can Clusters of Human-Constructed Ponds in the Arizona Desert Save a Threatened Frog? A Pipeline Company Says It Will Protect the Environment in North Carolina. Its Record in Tennessee Says Otherwise. New Florida Law Bans Local Net-Zero Emissions Policies RICHARDSON, Texas—Jonathan Pace first noticed the noise. But it wasn’t until he bought a Bluetooth-based drone tracker that what seemed like a neighborhood nuisance became something he could measure: how often Amazon drones flew above his home—and how low they flew.
Pace, the chief operating officer of a software company, works from home in Richardson, a suburb north of Dallas. He chose the neighborhood for its quiet streets, single-family homes and peaceful backyards, where the loudest interruptions were lawn mowers and the occasional airplane flying overhead.
That changed when Amazon’s Prime Air delivery drones began to buzz near his home.