Link: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/08/amazon-aims-for-delivery-drones-to-reach-500-us-neighborhoods-by-end-of-2026/

Amazon wants to grow its Prime Air delivery drone service sixfold to reach nearly 500 cities and towns across the United States by the end of 2026. The planned expansions from Amazon and its rivals could make the convenience of delivery drone services available to tens of millions more people in the coming months—but will also test more communities’ tolerance for increased noise from daily drone flights.

On August 19, Amazon announced it would soon launch Prime Air in the metropolitan areas of Chicago; Cleveland; Atlanta; Syracuse, New York; and Boise, Idaho, with more to come later in the year. Each Prime Air site offers delivery drone service within an area of about 175 square miles, with delivery times ranging from half an hour to an hour.

Prime Air already operates out of Amazon warehouses in 10 cities across seven states. Those include primarily suburban neighborhoods of Phoenix; Tampa; Kansas City; Omaha, Nebraska; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Detroit; Houston; and San Antonio, Dallas, and Waco, Texas.

Definitely going to be used for surveillance

am i sleep deprived or does the headline say a completely different thing than the actual body of the article? surely neighbourhoods and cities are not the same thing???

How does Amazon think this is going to end? Have they SEEN a "Welcome to [city name in south]" sign? They are nearly always full of bullet holes. Heard of skeet shooting???

That difference in definition is cultural and circumstantial, I think. Manhattan has enough neighborhoods for a whole Wikipedia article, for example.