Drones Overwhelm a Texas Suburb. Most residents are not happy.
It’s Raining Boxes in Richardson, Texas
The New York Times reports It’s Raining Boxes: Amazon Drones Overwhelm a Texas Suburb.
Richardson city officials gave Amazon zoning approval to start the drone delivery service in December as part of the company’s nascent Prime Air program. It promises customers tens of thousands of items — nail trimmers for pets, ankle bracelets, handcrafted, razor-tipped bread lames for scoring sourdough — in as little as 30 minutes. The delivery could be free or cost up to $4.99.
The Federal Aviation Administration, which governs U.S. airspace, gave Amazon clearance to fly its drones.
Now many other parts of the United States can expect their own drone deliveries, a welcome convenience for some, but an invasion for others.
Last month, Amazon announced that Prime Air deliveries would expand to 500 towns and cities by the end of the year. Other companies are also using drone deliveries, and the F.A.A. has forecast that by 2030 the number could explode to more than 3.5 million, up from the current number of 897,000 registered drones.
“What’s happening in Richardson is about to happen all over the country, and people are finally going to believe us that having all these drones flying around is actually a big, big problem,” said Scott Bratcher, who is the president of his homeowners’ association in a Richardson neighborhood that residents have called a drone highway.
In the Richardson neighborhoods near the Amazon distribution center, any joy about the innovation has been muted by the sound of dozens of drones, if not more than a hundred of them, flying by every day, sometimes so loud that they sound like flying lawn mowers.
Under city regulations, deliveries can operate from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m., and Amazon has assured residents that the drones would fly outbound at an average of 225 feet high. The maximum they can fly, according to the F.A.A., is 400 feet.
“We hear them zoom, zoom, zoom, back and forth from morning until past dinnertime,” said Nikki Anderson, whose extended family spotted the drone — and many more — one Friday earlier this month. She has long prized the serenity of her backyard, with its undulating pool and birds chirping from landscaping that included a shrub sculpted into the shape of a giant heart.
One online video shows an Amazon drone dropping a package into a pool. Another caught one smashing into an apartment building and crashing near a sidewalk. A recent video showed a drone atop a grassy median of a road in Baton Rouge, La., sitting there like a lost puppy.
Ms. Puri, like some of her neighbors, has set up a drone tracker. On Friday, she recorded what she called a slow day: 52 drones overhead, including three between 150 and 170 feet up, close enough to distract her while was inside. Her cat Eden growls when they fly that low.
When a protest was held in front of the Amazon distribution center in June, Ms. Puri took part. People waved signs like “Too low, too loud, too many.” And she said many Amazon delivery drivers, whose jobs may be at risk, honked their horns in support.
Brian Rowe, an executive in tech and cybersecurity, has shown up to City Council meetings to complain. He senses other problems looming. Nearly two weeks ago, a company began testing air taxis in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
They look like Amazon drones, but are much, much bigger.
What Cities Can and Cannot Do
- FAA Authority: The FAA has exclusive legal authority over all United States airspace from the ground up. Local ordinances cannot conflict with federal aviation rules or restrict drones from flying over specific neighborhoods.
- Federal Certification: Amazon operates its Prime Air service under an official FAA Air Carrier Certificate (Part 135).
- Prohibited Local Actions: Municipal governments are federally prohibited from creating local no-fly zones, restricting flight altitudes, banning routes, or regulating aircraft noise while drones are in the air.
- Facility Approval: While cities cannot stop drones in the air, some local residents are pushing municipal councils to scrutinize or reject ground-level zoning approvals for new local Amazon distribution and drone-launch facilities
Practical Advice
- Anywhere, USA, don’t buy a home near an Amazon distribution center.
- If you already live near an Amazon distribution center, sell. It’s going to get worse, much worse.
Property values near major drone flyways are going to take a hit.
Sell now, beat the rush.
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Buy a shotgun. Duck/goose gun. Extra long barrel. 10 Ga if you can handle it.
You can directly affect inertial navigation systems.
Electronic countermeasures anyone?
I’ve been piddling around with a servo turret that flings 8mm ball bearings, and can somewhat track one of my larger drones. I don’t think I’ll be able to get it to hit anything at range… maybe I should put an antenna on it instead.
Nice can you knock down Flock cams in my town when you’re done?
There’s a gentler solution: The Flock Sock
Help is on the way, MagLev Aero has developed a new quieter propulsion system:
https://interestingengineering.com/military/maglev-aero-drone-propulsion-platform
Mish, I love ya, but this is one of those situations where the remedy is obvious but your libertarian ideals are impractical. Maybe instead of telling the country to move to somewhere not by Amazon (sarcasm? Seems impossible. Not to mention your frequent posts that highlight how hard it is to find an affordable home period)
I dunno, maybe the government makes a regulation that tells Amazon’s garbage to fuck off?
Libertarians consider the commons up for sale. In this case, the airspace to Amazon.
But, hey, you’re free to outbid Amazon. Freedoom!
Libertarianism only really works for the rich half of the population, which uses it’s leverage to become the rich .01%.
Yeah sounds like a good idea until you realize Amazon writes the rules not us.
In another Announcement, the FAA said that the Government regulations allow no more than 10 deaths per month per Zip Code when Amazon Deliveries drop boxes on Human Heads. Amazon has also bought a Billion Dollar annual policy with Lloyds of London to pay out a Maximum of $150,000 per any Head that is crushed by a delivery.🤔
Interesting… drones are getting car status. You can murder somebody with on and get a slap on the wrist.
Surprised? I am not
Amazonian drones
Kill jobs
Hurt the environment
Hurt innocent people and animals on the ground
Solutions?
Boycott amazonian products and services plus complain to the politicians
Boxes!? Made from WOOD FIBER? Burn’em, beat the high cost of heating oil.
so Trump sucks up to Xi. a mao zedong reincarnation. long live pax dumbfuckistan.
Delivery drones could double as spy devices.
could? didn’t snowden already prove everything is a spy device from emails to texts to phone calls.
This has been an idea of Amazon’s for years and never goes anywhere, I won’t hold my breath for this time. Especially not with how much gas anti-corporate socialists are getting from news like this. My God, it’s like they WANT another FDR in office.
Yes, Amazon wants extremely burdensome and costly regulation of drone delivery. It makes competition almost impossible for all but the largest corporations.
I just want to go mom and pop shops and buy things, but I can’t because middle-game capitalism destroys 99% of them. I’m stuck between the hell of amazon, and the horrors of walmart. no customer service, everything is dehumanization, this is horror and terror.
At least we should be honest about capitalism. Capitalism will always end up with oligopoly.
tons of mom and pop stores in city centres. lived in 5 of them so far in my life.
Get real
That’s not evidence of anything but your transience
Must be a difficult trial, living in mom and pop stores.
That’s the DESIGN of this system: Consolidation and elimination of those pesky small competitors. Think Private Equity gone wild.
Find your representatives house and start flying drones over it.
These things have to be a pretty good size. What happens when they crash.
I live less than 2 miles from Mar-A-Largo.
I wonder what would happen if I tried to fly drones over it 🙂
This will devastate bird populations. The human race is a fucking cancer.
The Amazon race is.
These delivery drones aren’t going at hundreds of miles an hour, they’ll probably be flying no faster than normal birds. So birds will easily avoid them in the same manner that they avoid other flying birds.
Birds nesting and resting disruptions of their lives amazonian greed is cancerous
Boycott
Cats just laugh at the pittance of bird deaths we humans cause.
“Anywhere, USA, don’t buy a home near an Amazon distribution center.”
How does one do that, since pretty much every populated area is next to an Amazon distribution megahub and/or a data center.
If there isn’t one there yet, give it a couple of months.
What’s funny about the comments is that on the one hand, we are repeatedly told automation, AI, robots (and drones) will fix everything and simultaneously complaining about water and electricity guzzling data centers, noisy drones, and loss of jobs.
This is what your robot future looks like guys, why so many complaints? Don’t want to see 10,000 drones over your house every day? 10,000 automated trucks on the freeway? Loud data centers sucking up all the water & electricity?
Bwahahahaha, there is NO FREE LUNCH. But hey, you can deport those illegals now, it’s a hell of a deal.
Why do you always have to act like an asshole?
He needs to remind you how he moved to some non-specific place that apparently is in a middle eastern timezone… except that’d mean he’s posting at 3am here. It’s very real though and he’s extremely rich and escaped to live in paradise while gloating to everyone here. Because that’s what people who can afford to move to paradise do I guess?
I have been on MIshtalk since almost the beginning. I didn’t comment for at least the first decade and a half but I started to after I saw the pattern:
You want to know what I finally decided to do? LEAVE.
And now I’m living happily ever after. So my question to you is how many decades are you going to repeat the pre-programmed script?
Is the kumbaya clan paying for your soaring health insurance, property taxes, electric rates, grocery bill, fuel, etc yet? Let me know when they start doing that and maybe I’ll go back.
You frequently attack me as well. Why are you so triggered? What do you care about why I left or how rich I am? The more you attack the more you reveal yourself for who you are despite your “kumbaya” all loving personality.
MPO, we share a life plan. I just do not STEAL, LIE or CHEAT while escaping because there is no escaping the MAN. Even here in Portugal, taxes have risen, Immigration offices are Overwhelmed and the locals hate outsiders building shit until we pay them. THEN, we get to know them and learn THEIR languages and styles. We try to MIX IN without being assholes to locals.
You’re a smart person, so you get a pass sometimes
But half of what you do is brag to people online that don’t care like your individual situation applies to everyone
It’s narcissistic and annoying
What do you construe as bragging? Where are those examples? Me saying I’m buy-writing TLT? Me saying I had an exit strategy? Occasional references to being rich?
Lots of people here are clearly mental cases if that’s what is triggering people. But from now on I won’t mention being rich but I guarantee you that others will bring it up, just wait and watch.
Why do I make fun of you? Let’s see, because you’re not a good liar and you throw a temper tantrum anytime someone calls you out. You’re so unloved you’re even getting sacked here now. Keep telling us all how great you’re doing, it’ll work out soon!
My friends in Low places are moving to HIGH places. I am with them. Our pooled assets buy spreads in Portugal in the middle of bumfuk, Algarve, Southern Portugal. CHEAP compared to even TEXAS HINTERLANDS.
Why do you even GAF what his claims are, if you doubt them, then discount them to zero. What’s stopping you?
asshole? All I did was point out the irony/hypocrisy of the comments. Perhaps you should be asking yourself why you are so triggered? Have you thought about why your blood boils with my comments? What is untrue about my comment?
I rarely have anyone disprove any comment I write, people like you, Creamer and others go into attack mode for some unexplainable reason.
There is a problem with your psychological makeup if I am triggering you for some unknown reason.
Dude, plenty of your posts are “y’all are dumb, you should do what I do, I’m the smartest ever”
Right or wrong, it’s textbook asshole
The only people I call dumb are MAGA and farmers and it’s 99% well deserved.
I see lots of people doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I offer an alternative approach and get nothing but slack. America in a nutshell.
And with this, let’s adjourn today’s “what about this poster” therapy session
He’s not ACTING like one. Just a I show, we are ALREADY assholes. Why come here unless our jobs are to challenge and then decide who wins? That is LIFE. Assholes are also known as Winners.
Ted Kaczinski said the same about all of industrial society in the ’70’s. And he was right, in every new technological innovation we get something good and give away something good. And for some, what is given away is far more valuable than what is gotten. But you don’t get a choice.
Interesting character… smart, but crazy as a sack of weasels. The manifesto starts out sane and just devolves into crazy pants Luddite ravings. There is truth among the crazy, but I think maybe he just got lucky there.
This comment has attracted alot of opinions so here’s mine.
MPO will sometimes make a valid critique, BUT the constant bragging about how much money he has and how smart he is because he left the US reminds me of the “manosphere” types.
In my experience anyone that constantly runs their mouth about their wealth and smarts (and provides zero proof of either) is most likely lying or they are attempting to overcompensate for some other perceived inadequacy.
Regardless, I ignore his bluster because it offers nothing of value to me aside from a chuckle and an eye roll.
Double-O buckshot solves this.
Purely hypothetical, a high powered laser is more efficient, aim for the roto blades usually made of plastic. The trick is to melt them enough as they fly by so the keep going then fall out of the sky over someone else’s lawn a few hundred feet.
You’d have to be very accurate to hit a moving target. Also, the laser power needed to do that shouldn’t be in ordinary public hands. Though I do see videos of people cutting branches with high power lasers it’s a bad accident waiting to happen.
No: the melted intruder falls on a neighbor’s Kid, wife, Dad or Dog.
Not at that altitude. feel free to prove me wrong, but use non-toxic shot please.
They have to come down to deliver the packages.
Would be a shame if your neighbor ordered a package and the drone that delivered it had an unfortunate accident during the delivery.
NO shot is NON-TOXIC cuz that leads can blow off heads or wings.
Within city limits your neighbors will call the cops on you in 10 seconds or less. You might be lucky enough the 1st time that they can’t figure out who fired the shot but if you do it repeatedly you’ll be arrested quickly for discharging a firearm.
And remember, you down 1 drone with a shot and the next 1000 keep on coming day after day.
Unless you live somewhere actually rural and not east-California (AKA Texas)
If you live really rural then it will be much easier to figure out who shot it down. The person who’s property it lands on. You do realize those things are going to be constantly in contact with Amazon and when the are shot and dropping they’ll be sending their GPS coordinates.
I could tell you some wild stories about what I’ve seen with annoying aircraft but I have a feeling I’ll just get “nuh uh” back.
The Law and Penalties
Don’t be stupid, drones have cameras. My son has used drones in his business for years. First in inspecting cell towers and today in inspection and specialized photography of commercial buildings. Delivery drones, as annoying as they may be, are here to stay until a cheaper technology replaces them.
“Anywhere, USA, don’t buy a home near an Amazon distribution center.”
Burbank has one adjacent to the airport. Sometimes while driving up Hollywood Way, there is a parade of Amazon trucks coming down the street to make their rounds. The new, long delayed airport passenger terminal, opens up next month.
Some poor bastard juuust bought a house that is going to put him behind all that to get to work. He’s grumbling about the trucks now… lets watch as the terminal opens!
I’m gonna guess Amazon will figure out how to bulk use drones and reduce noise at the same time – I might be wrong. And this won’t affect locations near drone hubs
However data centers consuming power using water and making heat/noise won’t change.
There’s not much you can do about the noise due to the high rpm motors. People have tried changing the prop design with only a little improvement. The only thing you can really do is fly higher. But that costs energy. I wonder how often people order from Amazon. That will tell you the density of drones to expect on a daily basis. When they come down to deliver that’s where the annoying noise comes really comes in.
As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.
Between Amazon and Ai we will never have a healthy housing market again.
Plenty of opportunities for outside forces to crash your property value. Zero opportunities to improve your property value
Pretty much ALL the markets have been screwed beyond repair. Not just housing. Stocks, bonds, commodities… …
And government schools are closing due to declining birth rates. You can check capacity rates of your local schools to see if they are at risk.
“we will never have a healthy housing market again.”
and
“Plenty of opportunities for outside forces to crash your property value. Zero opportunities to improve your property value” are at odds with each other.
It’s all the folks who want to protect their property value (I am told that it is the boomers) who are creating market inefficiencies. Go look at your local zoning laws, and you will see the reason why housing prices remain so elevated.
I’m surprised this is news.
For decades, suburban and exurban ICE-driving drones have descended into downtowns for their jobs every weekday morning and back in the evening – spewing noise, congestion and pollution for the city residents that did not ask for this nuisance.
Is it news because finally these drones are headed in the opposite direction now and bothering those solitude-loving workers?
Only good thing Daley II did was get rid of Meigs. “X” marked the spot in the dead of night.
In addition to the drone noise issue, another one coming is that the blanket ban on overland commercial supersonic flight is being overhauled. The FAA has proposed replacing the speed ban with a rule that aircraft will be allowed to fly supersonic over land if they utilize aerodynamic designs that reduce the physical boom to a quiet “sonic thump” (what ever that is). There is a theme here: The benefit goes to a corporation’s balance sheet (faster shipping, faster business travel), while the cost (loss of quietude) is externalized onto everyday citizens. And by using federal preemption, federal agencies effectively disarm local populations from protecting their own neighborhoods. And you can bet that many of the people at the FAA regulating drones now will eventually find jobs at Amazon or other drone deliverers in the future.
Personally, I think you make some great points, but you do realize you are complaining about marketplace ‘externalities’ on a libertarian website, right?
Yes, I know. I would call myself a libertarian when it comes to people being allowed to make choices which affect themselves only (want to take that peptide–ok but know that it might kill you; don’t want to wear a motorcycle helmit–ok but know that it might kill you, want to end your life due to incurable disease-ok, etc.) but I do think that there is some role for government when people (i.e. Amazon) make choices that affect the quality of other people’s lives. Another example would be pollution control laws.
Libertarians either ignore or are unconsciously glib about the fact that money is power.
Privatize the profit and socialize the cost, that’s the American way!
drones drop boxes from 10 feet in the air — damaging orders: ‘F–k outta here’
https://nypost.com/2026/04/17/lifestyle/amazon-customers-claim-delivery-drones-are-damaging-orders/
Sounds like a new version of the old aircraft noise problem.
If you’re lucky enough to live near a data center, it drowns them out.
And if you’re lucky enough to have a toxic waste dump or EPA Superfund site nearby, you won’t even notice the data center!
Nothing my 30cal air rifle can’t handle.
Just be aware that shooting at an aircraft (and the FAA considers drones as aircraft) is a federal offense, treated very differently say than if you shot at a ground drone.
I’ll say it was on the ground when I shot it. I brought it down with pure ill will.
You must not have an attorney in your family to consult.
Airspace above your property is not ‘yours’
so brave. i’d wager 10 to one you don’t have the balls.
The balls I have, the marksmanship, probably not so much. Might luck out with full auto though.
Fortunately for me, I will never live anywhere near these things. They won’t even drive out here… I have to pick up my packages in town.
wow wee, mr…….. sure thing old sport. Walmart and Amazon both maintain delivery coverage that reaches approximately 95% of the United States population. However, their geographic footprint and infrastructure maps look fundamentally different due to their opposing logistics strategies
I live in the other 5%, apparently…
A rifle would be too difficult. Use a shotgun. Say you were hunting pigeons, ducks, or geese.
great memories of goose hunting on lake ontario, i mean lake epstein.
The Jed Clampett defense
the pilot first episode of beverly hill billies is classic. must watch. an oilman is kidnapped by daughter and executive flies in on a chopper. ha ha ha. sounds like bezos in this idiotic thread about idiots shooting at drones delivering baby food to mommas.
Interesting… an emotional defense of Bezos’ drones.
Life in stupidland continues….
US Ambassador to China David Perdue says in their recent meeting Trump asked President Xi if China wanted to buy weapons systems from the US.
No wonder Xi looks like he’s stifling a chuckle in all those pictures.
“Maybe, send us the specs and a demo unit with source code for each of the weapons systems you want to sell us and we’ll check them out and let you know!”
He’s probably got all that stashed in some mildewed bathroom at Maralago
Most of the Amazon logistics centers in Charlotte are clustered by the airport, but advisement taken. In any case I have doubts whether they’ll ever operate drone service to a significant extent here given the heavy tree canopy.
our life in thrall to tech overlords who have bought the government
Not sure where you’re getting this POV. The ‘tech overlords’ don’t order stuff from Amazon they want delivered quickly. That’s the decision of consumers – you know, your ‘neighbors’
Real estate has always been about location but funny how that has shifted to:
1. Location away from Amazon Distribution centers
2. Location away from noisy and water guzzling data centers
3. Location away from flock cameras
4. Location away from high tax state/county/city governments
At this point, sounds like being just away from it all is the better plan.
Got exit strategy? ‘Cuz no one will save you.
These asswipes in Richardson deserve to have their quality of life reduced to nothing. They are racist Christian fascist scum. I hope Amazon and Flock make slaves out of all of them. It’s exactly what these pedophile scum deserve.
Please explain why they deserve reduced quality of life. You may be right but I can’t figure out your evidence to justify such vitriol. Obviously, you know something important.
Don’t hold back. Tell us how you really feel.
not much has changed over the centuries. i live in small city on hudson founded by the dutch in 1600s. i live on the hill, where the wealthy coal and then rich folks used to nyc 100 miles south, steamship operators and blue slate and brick owners lived. down the steep hill to the rivers edge were the poor miners and ship workers tenements. today it’s all rich folks. not different than the rich fat fucks who live in exurbia that watch endless sportsball and bitch about amazon fullfillment factories……….only difference is about 100lbs from a working man in 1700 and 1800s and today.