Amazon, Uber, DoorDash, and Walmart are taking the delivery wars to the skies

Forget raining cats and dogs: In America’s increasingly crowded skies, it may soon be packages and takeout food falling from above.

For one Texas woman, the future has already arrived, though perhaps not exactly as Amazon intended.

Lindsey Austen was expecting an Amazon delivery by drone Monday when she heard it approaching her home in Richmond, Texas, and ran outside to record the delivery.

Instead, she watched as the package dropped straight into her backyard pool .

“When it went into the pool, I was shocked,” Austen told Storyful .

“I don’t think I’ll be wanting drone deliveries anymore.” The mishap comes at an awkwardly fitting moment for an industry that has spent years promising packages, takeout, and everyday essentials would eventually descend from the sky.

After more than a decade of experiments, regulatory hurdles and technical setbacks, some of America’s biggest delivery companies are now making much bigger bets that drones are finally ready for prime time.

Amazon said Wednesday its Prime Air service will expand to nearly 500 U.S. cities and towns by the end of 2026, a sixfold increase from its current footprint.

The company currently operates drone delivery from 11 locations and plans to add markets including Chicago, Atlanta, Cleveland, and Syracuse, N.Y..

The company says its drones can deliver millions of eligible products weighing up to five pounds in as little as 30 minutes.

The expansion is the latest attempt to make good on a vision Jeff Bezos laid out more than a decade ago.

The Amazon founder unveiled the company’s delivery drones on 60 Minutes in 2013 and predicted drone deliveries could arrive within four to five years.

Instead, the program faced regulatory hurdles , technical setbacks, and noise complaints from residents .

Amazon has delivered hundreds of thousands of packages by drone this year, Prime Air Vice President David Carbon said Wednesday.