Amazon Prime Air loses two key operations leaders, as drone delivery struggles continue
An Amazon delivery drone is on display at Amazon’s BOS27 Robotics Innovation Hub in Westborough, Massachusetts on November 10, 2022.
Joseph Prezioso | AFP | Getty Images
Amazon has lost two executives key to the company’s drone delivery operations, the latest setback for an aspirational program that’s required hefty investment but has experienced scant success.
Jim Mullin, Prime Air’s chief pilot, left Amazon last month, according to his LinkedIn profile. Robert Dreer, who reported to Mullin and was responsible for all of Prime Air’s test operations, departed last week for a role at electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft startup Opener, he wrote in a LinkedIn post.
Both employees were based at Prime Air’s main site in Pendleton, Oregon. Their exits have not been reported on publicly beyond their individual posts, and neither responded to requests for comment over LinkedIn.
The departures come at a critical juncture for Prime Air, which has struggled to transition into a fully operational service since Amazon founder Jeff Bezos predicted in 2013 that within five years Amazon would deliver by drone packages weighing 5 pounds or less to customers’ doorsteps. Mullin, a former Marine One pilot during the Obama administration, oversaw Prime Air safety and regulatory compliance, as well as site leads at the unit’s facilities in Oregon, California and Texas.
Just as Prime Air was set to launch early this year and start delivering packages sent to consumers, CEO Andy Jassy, who succeeded Bezos in 2021, embarked on the largest round of layoffs in company history, which included significant job cuts at Prime Air. Jassy’s cost-cutting strategy was in response to dramatically slowing growth and investors’ turn away from tech as interest rates rose.
But problems for Prime Air predated the economic downturn. The drone unit has been hamstrung by regulatory restrictions that limit where deliveries can be made. Even at its two launch sites — Lockeford, California, and College Station, Texas — deliveries remain way short of division head David Carbon’s target of 10,000 this year. As of May, the company said it had completed a total of 100 deliveries at those locations.
There’s also been a string of crashes, with multiple reported incidents between 2020 and 2021. More recently, on June 21 of this year, during tests at the Pendleton site, a drone made an emergency landing in a field and was destroyed, according to a federal crash report viewed by CNBC. Nobody was injured, the report says.
Amazon could now be at risk of not completing a key regulatory requirement of the Federal Aviation Administration that the company needs to prove its drones can fly over people and towns. At the beginning of the year, the company began durability and reliability (D&R) testing, which requires that Prime Air complete several hundred hours of flying without any incidents.
The company is in the process of completing D&R testing for its current drone model, the MK27-2. It will have to undergo the same regulatory process for its next-generation version, the MK30, which Amazon expects to launch next year.
WATCH: Amazon drones lagging far behind Alphabet’s Wing and Walmart partner Zipline
Close-up of a hand holding a cellphone displaying the Amazon Pharmacy system, Lafayette, California, September 15, 2021.
Smith Collection | Gado | Getty Images
Amazon is expanding its online pharmacy to fill prescription pet medications, the company announced Thursday.
The company said it has added “hundreds of commonly prescribed pet medications” to its U.S. site, ranging from flea and tick solutions to treatments for chronic conditions.
Prescriptions are purchased via Amazon’s storefront and must be approved by a veterinarian. Online pet pharmacy Vetsource will oversee the dispensing and delivery of medications, said Amazon, adding that items are typically delivered within two to six days.
Amazon launched its digital drugstore in 2020 with the added perk of discounts and free delivery for Prime members. The company has been working to speed up prescription shipments over the past year, bringing same-day delivery to a handful of U.S. cities. Last October, Amazon set a goal to make speedy medicine delivery available in nearly half of the U.S. in 2025.
The new pet medication offerings puts Amazon into more direct competition with online pet pharmacy Chewy, as well as Walmart, which offers pet prescription delivery.
Amazon Pharmacy is part of the company’s growing stable of healthcare offerings, which also includes One Medical, the primary care provider it acquired for roughly $3.9 billion in July 2022. Amazon’s online pharmacy was born out of the company’s 2018 acquisition of online pharmacy PillPack.
Whoop member wears the new device.
Courtesy of Whoop
Whoop on Thursday announced two new wearable devices, Whoop 5.0 and Whoop MG, which feature sleeker hardware, a longer battery life and additional in-app health insights.
Both of the company’s new devices are designed for 24/7 wear.
The Whoop 5.0 and Whoop MG support 14 days of battery life, which is around triple the four-to-five-day range offered by Whoop 4.0. The new hardware is also 7% smaller than the previous device, with a processor that’s 60% faster, the company said.
“We’ve taken everything we’ve learned over the past decade and built a platform to help our members perform and live at their peak for longer,” Whoop founder and CEO Will Ahmed said in a release.
The launch marks Whoop’s first major hardware update since 2021, when the company released Whoop 4.0. Whoop said its new devices will help users understand how their daily decisions impact their performance and health outcomes over time, according to a release.
Cost and tiers
There are three annual membership tiers: Whoop One, which costs $199 and includes the Whoop 5.0; Whoop Peak, which costs $239 and includes the Whoop 5.0; and Whoop Life, which costs $359 and includes the Whoop MG. Accessories like additional bands will come at an extra cost.
Whoop 5.0 and Whoop MG memberships and accessories are available for purchase online starting on Thursday.
Whoop’s new membership options.
Whoop
Whoop One members will be able to use their Whoop 5.0 to measure sleep, strain and recovery, as well as the cardiovascular and muscular impact of various workouts. Users can also track their menstrual cycles and pregnancies.
Whoop Peak builds on those core metrics. Members have access to a Health Monitor feature, which provides a quick look at vitals like respiratory rate, heart rate, blood oxygen, and skin temperature. Whoop Peak also supports a real-time stress monitor, where users can see their stress level and complete guided breathing sessions if they’d like to increase relaxation or alertness.
The company also unveiled a feature called Healthspan, which uses nine metrics to calculate adult users’ Whoop Age and Pace of Aging. A user’s Whoop Age compares their physiological age to their actual age, and Pace of Aging assesses how fast or slow someone is aging based on their behavior.
The Healthspan feature is updated every week, and users will get tips about how they can improve their Whoop Age and Pace of Aging in their app. Whoop developed this feature in partnership with the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, the company said.
The most comprehensive membership is Whoop Life, which will give users access to additional medical-grade health features with Whoop MG.
Whoop Life members can record an electrocardiogram, or an ECG, to detect irregular heart rhythms like AFib, high heart rate or low heart rate. Once the reading is complete, they can share a PDF of the recording with their doctor.
The ECG feature has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It’s not intended for users under 22 years old, or for users with a cardiac pacemaker or other implanted devices. It will be available in the U.S., the UAE and Qatar at launch, with additional countries coming soon.
Whoop Life members can also get daily insights about their blood pressure, including estimated systolic and diastolic ranges. Users will have to log a traditional cuff-reading to act as a baseline to unlock this feature, and it’s not intended for treatment, diagnosis or medical use.
Whoop said Blood Pressure Insights has been in development for several years, and the feature is currently in beta.
Quick takeaways
Ashley Capoot wearing Whoop MG
Ashley Capoot
I got a sneak peek at the Whoop MG, and I’ve been wearing it for the past few days. I can’t speak to what it’s like to wear the device over an extended period, but my initial experience has been largely positive.
From a hardware standpoint, the Whoop MG looks and feels sleeker than the Whoop 4.0, which I tested out in April. The actual sensor is roughly an inch wide, and the band is slightly thinner than that. I’ve found that both the Whoop MG and the Whoop 4.0 are a little hard to take off — you really have to tug on the latch.
The Whoop MG’s setup is very straightforward, and I was up and running on the app in a matter of minutes. With all the new features, there’s a lot of additional data to make sense of, so the app seemed pretty busy to me at first. I felt like I had a better handle on it after a few hours, though, and I haven’t felt pressure to constantly monitor it.
Of the new features, I thought Healthspan was particularly interesting. As a relatively healthy 24-year-old, I noticed I still felt relieved to be “younger” than my age. I’d be curious to see how that feature would change based on my behaviors from week to week.
I also liked the Whoop MG’s detailed sleep tracking and the real-time stress monitor, as stress is something I’ve personally been trying to be more mindful of. I’ve learned that my stress levels really skyrocket while I’m taking public transport, for instance, and adjust accordingly.
After about a dozen tries, I wasn’t able to log a successful ECG reading. I kept getting errors, even after switching wrists and the positioning of my arms. That’s been disappointing, as I’m interested to see my results. The Blood Pressure Insights are neat, and assuming other users can successfully record ECG readings, it’s easy to see the potential benefit. That said, I don’t think I need those features in my daily life yet, so the Whoop Life membership probably wouldn’t be the right pick for me.
I’m not totally sold on the Whoop MG’s aesthetics. I have small hands and wrists, so I always feel like smart devices tend to look clunky on me.
I definitely felt like the Whoop 4.0 was too big for me, but the Whoop MG doesn’t bother me quite as much. That’s just my personal taste, and there are lots of Whoop accessories you can buy to spiff up the device for different occasions.
After just a few days, there’s a lot I can still learn from the Whoop MG, but I feel like I’d personally reach for the Whoop 5.0. The range of membership options helps ensure that users don’t have to break the bank, so I’d feel comfortable recommending Whoop 5.0 and Whoop MG to my friends and family. And for existing Whoop customers who are thinking about an upgrade, the extended battery life alone is worth considering.
WATCH: CEO of fitness tracker company Whoop on $3.6 billion valuation, outlook
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