Amazon received federal approval to deliver packages by drone, starting with commercial trials. The company envisions using drones to deliver packages in 30 minutes or less within 7.5 miles of its warehouses worldwide. However, Bloomberg reports that routine deliveries are likely years away because of regulatory hurdles.

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• The Federal Aviation Administration granted the approval that gives Amazon broader privileges to “safely and efficiently deliver packages to customers." It makes Prime Air, Amazon's drone delivery service, an official air carrier in the U.S.
• Amazon hasn't said when and where the testing could begin. It currently has test sites in Vancouver and the U.S. Northwest and is prepping for experimental deliveries in the U.K.
• Last year, Amazon revealed its hexagon-shaped hybrid drone, the MK27. It can take off and land vertically and has sensors and software that prevent it from running into power lines and other obstacles. The electric drone can carry up to 5 pounds and fly 15 miles.
• The FAA has given similar approval to Alphabet’s Wing and UPS to conduct trial drone deliveries. Wing, along with partners Walgreens and FedEx, has trialed drone deliveries in Virginia since last year. UPS transports blood and other medical supplies at a hospital campus in Raleigh, North Carolina.
• Routine, autonomous-drone package deliveries aren't currently permitted in the U.S. as the FAA works to develop standards and an air-traffic system for commercial drone flights.

Flight test of Amazon Prime Air’s latest delivery drone design, shown at re:MARS 2019.

A state bill that would hold electronic retail marketplaces liable for defective products will not advance in the California legislature, putting the concept on hold for now. The announcement comes after Etsy, eBay, and others accused Amazon of abusing its market power by supporting the latest version of AB 3262, which would hold them to the same liability rules as brick-and-mortar retailers.

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• Last week, Amazon said it would support the bill as long as it holds all online marketplaces – not just Amazon – liable for damages caused by faulty products sold by third parties. Etsy's CEO Josh Silverman argued that Amazon is trying to stifle competition and wipe out competitors by supporting legislation that only Amazon "can afford to absorb."
• AB 3262 "will not advance in its present form" by today's legislative deadline, said California Assemblymember Mark Stone, who first introduced the bill. After input from Amazon, lawmakers amended it to include online marketplaces that make money off of merchants' advertising fees.
• Opponents like Etsy argued they should be exempt because they don't vet, store, select, or distribute products sold on their third-party marketplaces, which they say already face strict liability rules under California law. 
• An example is a blogger who runs an ad to sell a car that has a defect, but the seller is unaware. “There’s no way anybody can be able to go around testing every product in the world to avoid these kinds of risks," said Dan Jaffe, government relations EVP for the Association of National Advertisers, which opposed the bill.
• Amazon hasn't commented on the bill's remission.

What's coming to Prime Video in September

Highlights include Season 2 of the original action series "The Boys" (Sept. 4); "Sex and the City: The Movie" (Sept. 1); and "All In: The Fight for Democracy," a documentary about the history of voter suppression in the U.S. (Sept. 18).

September 1

Movies

1/1 (2018)
1 Million Happy Nows (2018)
A Birder's Guide To Everything (2014)
Abe & Phil's Last Poker Game (2018)
Addicted To Fresno (2015)
Alex Cross (2012)
American Dragons (1998)
Bachelor Lions (2020)
Barney Thomson (2016)
Beach Party (1963)
Bewitched (2005)
Big Time (1988)
Bitter Melon (2018)
Bully (2019)
C.O.G. (2013)
Carrington (1995)
Casino Royale (2006)
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977)...

The Chicago Teachers Union stirred controversy when it voiced support for protestors who set up a mock guillotine outside Jeff Bezos' house in Washington, D.C. The demonstration occurred last Thursday, a day after Bezos became the first person ever to be worth $200b.

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• The protest appeared to be led by Christian Smalls, who was fired earlier this year from Amazon's Staten Island warehouse after he led a group of colleagues to protest the company’s response to the pandemic.
• His group, the Congress of Essential Workers, has demanded a minimum starting wage of $30 per hour and paid leave for workers who test positive for coronavirus, among other demands.
• On Thursday, about 100 demonstrations protested, and some built a mock guillotine outside Bezos' $23m house - the largest in the district - near Dupont Circle. A sign read "support our poor communities. Not our wealthy men."
• Many Twitter users criticized the Chicago Teachers Union tweet, which showed a video of the protest and said it's "completed frightened by, completely impressed by, and completely in support of wherever this is headed."
• Others made light of the situation. "$20 says they bought that guillotine on amazon," tweeted @johnboccanfuso7.
• The union's Pension Fund owned about 45,750 shares of Amazon stock worth $86.6b as of FY2019.

Select Amazon customers are now shopping at the first Amazon Fresh store, located in a Los Angeles suburb, before it opens to the general public in several weeks. The customers were invited to shop at the Woodland Hills store, which lacks cashiers and traditional checkout lines, last week. To purchase groceries, they sign into their Amazon apps, place items in a special sensor-equipped "Dash Cart" that automatically tallies their items, and exit through a dedicated lane before they're billed via the app.

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• Amazon says the store will "open to everyone" from 7 a.m.-10 p.m. daily in "the coming weeks."
• The Fresh store integrates with customer's Alexa voice assistants and shopping lists. Echo Show smart kiosks help them navigate the store's layout.
• Amazon has Fresh stores in Northridge and Irvine, California, which are currently closed to walk-in customers but are doing online food orders. It plans to open more locations in the California cities of La Verne, North Hollywood, and Fullerton.
• The company already has more than two dozen checkout-free Go stores, which are smaller grab-and-go markets.
• Fresh stores appear to target a consumer base between discount grocery retailers like Aldi and Amazon's Whole Foods brand, says Gregory Ng, chief executive of digital consulting firm Brooks Bell.

Amazon ordered 1,800 Mercedes-Benz electric vans for its European delivery fleet. The order includes 1,200 electrified Sprinter vans and 600 eVito panel vans.

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• Amazon aims to become carbon-neutral by 2040.
• European countries have started implementing future “ICE” car bans.
• Amazon will deploy 800 of the vehicles in Germany and 500 in the U.K. Most of the vans will come into service this year.
• The electric Sprinter has a battery capacity of 55 kWh, which will yield an estimated range of 93 miles on a single charge, and can carry a payload of nearly 2,000 pounds.
• The eVito also has a range of up to 93 miles, with a payload of 2,034 pounds and a battery capacity of 41 kWh.

A version of this story first appeared in our newsletter, Inside Electric Vehicles.

Quick Hits

• Amazon last week announced the Halo, a competitor to FitBit. The wristband can track a person's body fat, sleep, heart rate, and emotional state.
• Two construction workers were killed when a structure collapsed on the site of a future Amazon fulfillment center in Suffolk, Va. Their names have not been released.
• Police arrested a 26-year-old intoxicated man who threw a wine bottle and shattered a window at one of Amazon’s temporary HQ2 spaces in Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia.
• Well-known Portland, Ore., bookstore Powell’s Books will no longer sell on Amazon, citing its “detrimental impact” on independent booksellers and local communities. 
• Amazon greenlit several original series from the U.K., including a dating show recreating the aesthetic of classic high school comedies and the hip-hop musical drama series "Jungle."
• Vault Health offers premium in-home treatments and online doctor's visits for men. No more awkward conversations.*

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