Are Drones Delivering?

Tech Update

By Joel Nelson on Jan 14, 2025 in Technology

Nine years ago, an article in this space asserted that deliveries of products to customers using drones might be “just around the corner.”

Google, Amazon and Walmart were among the major retailers developing unmanned aerial vehicle fleets; an Amazon vice president predicted that, pending resolution of various regulatory and technology issues, drone deliveries would become “as normal as seeing a delivering truck driving down the street.”

Has the vision articulated in 2016 come to pass?

Statistics indicate that drones are indeed becoming more commonly used for delivering products to homes or other locations. PwC estimates that about 5 million business-to-consumer drone deliveries occurred worldwide in 2024. The global drone delivery market, valued at $530 billion in 2022, is expected to grow more than 42% annually between 2023 to 2030, with the U.S. share estimated to reach $830 million this year.

“I think after what has been about a decade of a slow start, drone delivery seems to be accelerating both in its technological capabilities as well as the policy and regulatory environment in the United States,” Costa Samaras, director of Carnegie Mellon University’s Scott Institute for Energy Innovation, told NBC News last year.

In 2023, for the first time, the FAA authorized commercial drone operators to fly their aircraft long distances without visual spotters in the line of sight.

Drones can deliver a range of products, from prepared meals and groceries to medicines and retail items, while avoiding traffic congestion that traditional delivery vehicles must cope with. They also generate fewer emissions than road vehicles, can reach remote or hard-to-access locations, and are useful for such ancillary applications as surveillance, agriculture, aerial photography and environmental monitoring.

Concerns surrounding drones include potential job losses for delivery workers, privacy issues, neighborhood noise and the potential for misuse by malicious actors.

Growth of the drone delivery market will continue to be driven by such factors as increasing consumer demand for fast delivery, the desire to reduce carbon emissions and advancements in drone technology.

“With the increased demand for drone delivery services globally, various countries are implementing favorable policies to support the operation of drones in their airspace,” says Mordor Intelligence, a business market intelligence and advisory firm in Hyderabad, India.