How a town in Texas is fighting back against Amazon's delivery drones

The residents of College Station, a town in the US state of Texas with around 125,000 inhabitants, have had enough. Amazon's drone delivery service based there has repeatedly provoked complaints from residents, who have organized a level of resistance that Amazon has not yet experienced at other Prime Air locations, writes DroneXL. Amazon is currently suspending the service there – but it is not the residents' protests that are responsible, a necessary update is keeping the drones on the ground.

Drones that are too loud

Residents are particularly annoyed by the noise caused by the drones. Not only does it generally disturb the well-being of residents, it is also said to have an impact on nature and scare away birds, for example. Meanwhile, the residents of College Station also fear that their properties will lose value because nobody wants to live there anymore due to the nuisance caused by the drones. There are also complaints about the drones flying over the properties. A teenage girl, for example, feels disturbed by the drones because they fly over the family's swimming pool with their cameras while she is swimming, and it is not clear what the cameras are recording.

The residents therefore joined forces in 2024 to prevent the service in their town. Together, they submitted around 150 petitions to prevent the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) from approving the drone service. However, this did not work. The FAA rejected the residents' concerns as unfounded. Furthermore, some objections were such that they did not fall within the FAA's remit. The drones and the delivery service were therefore certified by the FAA in October 2024.

Amazon tried to address the complaints of College Station residents and deployed the new, quieter MK30 drones, which replaced the previous MK27-2 model. But even this was not enough to appease the residents.

Amazon then stopped flight operations in January 2025. According to official information, this was due to an update that was necessary after two drone crashes in the drizzle, but has not yet been completed. It is intended to guarantee safe operation even in adverse weather conditions. However, the FAA did not demand that the drone delivery service be stopped; it was done voluntarily. However, the FAA must give the green light to resume operations.

Damage limitation

Amazon is now going on a publicity tour. In a press release at the end of February, the company attempted to dispel any concerns about the risks of the MK30 drone and listed the safety tests that are carried out on the drones before they are allowed to fly. Amazon apparently wants to allay concerns not only at the drone delivery service locations in the West Valley of the Arizona Phoenix metro area and in College Station, but also to prevent the reservations of residents of possible other locations. Whether this will succeed is unclear.

In any case, the residents of College Station are fighting back. They want to continue their resistance and hope that Amazon will abandon the Prime Air site there before the end of the year. An important date is September 30, 2025, when Amazon's lease in College Station expires.

(olb)