Amazon has been working for over a decade on building autonomous drones to deliver packages. I feel like this aligns perfectly with the billionaire preference of only wanting to deal with other humans as consumers, not valued employees who deserve a living wage. Anyway, the drone division is called Prime Air, and it currently has operations in just 11 US cities… but not for long! This week Amazon announced a HUGE expansion of drone activity, with plans to reach 500 cities by the end of the year. Also this week, a woman in Texas posted a video of one of these drones flying in to deliver her package. After hovering and making minor adjustments until it presumably determined it had achieved the exact right spot for delivery (much like my dog circling an area before settling into a restful repose), the drone dropped the package — into the woman’s swimming pool. I do believe the timing of this video coming on the heels of Prime Air’s expansion news, is what the gods call kismet.

The painfully amusing footage shows the drone, humming loudly as it hovers over the woman’s pool. The woman repeats “Oh my God” in anticipation, before yelling “Oh ****,” as the autonomous robot opens its door and drops the package into the pool.

As mentioned, on Wednesday, Amazon announced it would expand Prime Air to nearly 500 cities and towns in the United States by the end of 2026, a 6x increase that will reportedly benefit tens of millions of customers. According to Amazon, its drone delivery selection includes millions of groceries, electronics, cosmetics, medications, and household products, which can be delivered in as little as 30 minutes.

Amazon already serves seven states with Prime Air, including the aforementioned Texas, where the unfortunate pool party took place. According to Amazon, Prime Air “is built to operate responsibly, and the safety of the employees, customers, and communities Amazon serves is the top priority.” Its delivery service holds Federal Aviation Administration Part 135 certification, and “multiple independent systems” keep the drones “operating safely and predictably” while in flight, even in unexpected situations, Amazon claims. “Prime Air’s industry-leading Detect-and-Avoid system continuously monitors the airspace and environment around the drone. It’s similar to a trained pilot who scans the surrounding airspace, and it allows the drones to independently see and make real-time decisions while in flight,” the company continues.

Adding to the irony, Amazon says that Prime Air drones use onboard cameras and sensors to navigate, check for obstacles, and deliver packages safely. Certainly, nothing unsafe happened in the video; the package fell harmlessly into the water, with no bystanders around to be struck. Likewise, in the video, the drone doesn’t collide with any obstacles, but clearly, some malfunction in the final moments of delivery convinced the drone that simply dropping the package in the swimming pool was a good idea.

[From Tom’s Hardware]

Ok, not to be too technical/literal (but I’m about to be exceedingly technical/literal), but I think the precise area where the drone dropped the package was the designated hot tub corner. It was clearly not the main body of the swimming pool, though I make these comments as someone who does not have a personal backyard swimming facility of her own. How does this factual assertion affect the impact of the drone’s failed delivery? It doesn’t! It was just a detail that bugged me, thanks for letting me get it off my chest! But if that tiny element bugged me, what propelled me to full blown insanity was the f–king NOISE POLLUTION. That lone drone was an assault to the ears! And Amazon wants to deploy a fleet of them across the country?? We cannot let this happen! The interminable buzzing of drones was not what Rachel Carson was after when she wrote Silent Spring, folks. (Except for the bee variety, of course.) What a nightmare. And all for what — an epic fail. The package looks like cardboard, so good luck to whatever “groceries, electronics, cosmetics, medications, and household products” this woman bought. Oh my dog, I hope it wasn’t eggs!!

Photos via YouTube and credit: Ekaterina Belinskaya on Pexels