Amazon’s drone tests accused of threatening wildlife at beauty spot
Campaign group claims online giant’s trials for parcel delivery are ruining area’s peace and quiet
AMAZON is posing a threat to British wildlife by using an area near a site of special scientific interest to test drones that can deliver parcels to customers, a nature group has claimed.
Earlier this year the retailer stepped up its drone trials in UK airspace after winning special approval from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to test its aerial vehicles without several of the rules that typically bind drone pilots.
The tests are taking place here because they are still outlawed in the United States. The agreement was a major boost for Amazon and moves it a step closer to its plan to have fleets of drones delivering small packages directly to shoppers within 30 minutes.
But according to Julia Napier, a cofounder of Friends of the Roman Road and Fleam Dyke, a local association that maintains public footpaths around the test site on the edge of Cambridge, the internet retailer’s activities are a potential threat to local wildlife and the wider countryside.
Mrs Napier said: “What I find striking is that they have chosen to test something that is near to the site of special scientific interest. It is also an area where people hope to get away from traffic noise, so it is a great shame these drones are being allowed as they make the sound of an electric drill.
“Amazon wants to impose an aerial delivery system so it can send people parcels but I am worried the birds in my garden will desert me pretty soon if these noisy things are going to be flying around.”
Mrs Napier told The New York Times that she refuses to use Amazon’s services, preferring to visit her local bookshop or smaller online British rivals.
She also said an Amazon employee called her last week trying to persuade her that the local drone trials were safe and did not pose a risk to wildlife.
Amazon has denied its testing is hav- ing an adverse effect on the countryside. The online giant unveiled the second prototype of its Prime Air drone last year. The vehicle, which is able to take off and land vertically, can travel for 10 miles at an altitude of 400 feet and carry packages of up to 5lb, but much of its autonomous flying technology is yet to be fully tested.
When Amazon announced the drone programme in 2013, it suggested that it could be available within four or five years, although the company has not given a firm date.
At the time, Paul Misener, Amazon’s vice president of global innovation policy and communications, said the UK “had been a world leader in enabling drone innovation” and the decision to allow drone tests “strengthens our partnership with the UK and brings Amazon closer to our goal of using drones to safely deliver parcels in 30 minutes to customers in the UK and elsewhere around the world”.
Tim Johnson, the CAA’s head of policy, said: “We want to enable the innovation that arises from the development of drone technology by safely integrating drones into the overall aviation system.
“These tests by Amazon will help inform our policy and future approach.”