Residents are complaining about the

• Prime Air drones are attracting noise complaints
• Houston residents say they’re like a ‘swarm of bees’
• Amazon promises the noise pollution is minimal

Not for the first time, residents are complaining about the noise coming from Prime Air drones flying over their properties — but Amazon is insisting that the sounds made by their flying machines are “minimal and short-lived”.

As Chron reports, the people of Houston, Texas are particularly unimpressed with the new aerial delivery service, which started operating in the area earlier this year. The very first Prime Air delivery tests were carried out in 2022.

“It was kind of cool and fascinating at first, but now it is driving me crazy,” Theresa Gibson, living in the Bridgestone neighborhood, told Chron. “It sounds like a large swarm of bees at a much higher volume than a normal swarm of bees. And it’s all day long.”

According to Gibson, whose home is right in the flight path of the droning drones, dozens of the delivery robots pass overhead every day. A regular stream of noise pollution complaints have been filed by residents since Prime Air moved into the area.

Amazon responds

Back in August, Amazon announced that the Prime Air service was expanding to another 500 cities in the US, though operations in the Texas cities Houston, Waco, San Antonio, and Richardson had already been up and running for several months.

“During drop-off, the sound level is below that of an idling delivery truck parked curbside and lasts about 30 seconds,” Amazon says. “During flight at altitude, it’s comparable to a window fan on low and is typically not heard indoors.”

In a statement given to Chron, Amazon says it’s been taking on board feedback. “Our drones spend most of the flight at higher altitudes, and sound heard on the ground is minimal and short-lived, typically lasting about 30 seconds,” the statement added.

Amazon also said that the general response to its Prime Air drones — and delivery times under 30 minutes — has been “overwhelmingly positive”. It’s also been meeting with residents and city leaders over changes to flight operations.

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Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you’ll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.