Granted, Amazon have an impressive success rate with getting packages to people without screwing up deliveries. One of the issues here, though, is potential loss of control. I can see a ton of weak links in this delivery chain, most of which Amazon will have little or no control over.
I work as an elevator operator on occasion, thank you very much (and it does require skill). Replacing a freight elevator in a commercial building costs $1M or more, and Iām happy to have the extra cash at $15 an hour. You do the math.
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I like Waterstoneās response - http://www.waterstones.com/blog/2013/12/introducing-o-w-l-s/
Thatās a lesson in how to do social mediaā¦
(Waterstones is a bookshop in the UK)
āPULL!ā
-newly formed UPS Deliverymenās Rifle Club
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Dogs are going to like chewing on these.
Never mind that; the cats are gonna have a field day.
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Itās legal to shoot things out of the skies in your dense urban environment? Where I live, if you shoot something out of the sky from your house with a shotgun, youāre going to jail for a while.
No one is planning drone deliveries for remote communities. The proposal (something blue sky here) is for dense environments where it makes more sense. Right now, your typical quadcopter can stay in the air for 20 minutes at most.
Seems to be too many loose ends on this. There will clearly have to be a weight limit for deliverables, and what about weather concerns? Insurance risks for an unmanned aircraft operating in a public environment. The drop-off point is also an issueādoes it go in the back yard, the front doorstep, the garage? Privacy concernsāthose drones will have cameras in abundance, what will they see hovering around my apartment or neighborhood?
Bezos has enough money that these and other concerns can be considered and possibly mitigated, and itās impressive that Amazon might actually try this, so weāll seeā¦
EDIT: Anyone mentioning the shotgunning of drones should look up a BB article (no time to look right now) about the same thingādrones are surprisingly resilient!
I guess itās pretty cool, but is it really necessary? People need to slow down, unless you are buying life-saving medicine on amazon, you probably donāt need it RIGHT NOW.
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Mini zeppelins, thatās what we need!
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I never claimed they would be obeying the lawā¦
I see drones as more of a Mr. Leeās Greater Hong Kong sort of enterprise.
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Thanks for the link! Brilliant!
BTW: Iād put my money on the owls.
Re blasting drones out of the sky: I vaguely remember reading something in BB a while back about an app for smartphones that can detect and track dones by their noise. So thatās your homing system right there. For the next phase Iām thinking EMP blast. These things must be as light as possible so there canāt be much shielding.
It would be fun however to fiddle with their GPS and send them over, say the next landfill?
Perfectly-timed PR stunt to get holiday shoppers thinking about Amazon, exploiting the current fascination with (generally useless) drones by the media and the public. Let me guess-- the drones will be 3d-printed?! (Wait for itā¦)
On many levels, this should remind us of nuclear fusion-- āsmall matter of engineeringā problems abound. Where will they fly? Where will they land? How will they be quiet (enough)? How will they be powered? How can they fail safely? How can they avoid piracy?
5 years away? Humbug, I say.
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I figured theyād just show up at your window like that Chinese take-out place in The Fifth Element.
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And letās say this idea (ahem) ātakes offā and other retailers start doing it . . . I live in the city and I get pretty annoyed with every siren and loud truck and motorcycle that goes by my window. I have come to accept the noise as part of life in the city (itās pretty stupid to complain about fire engines since they provide a necessary, life saving service), but if the future brings whirring drones going by my window every fifteen minutes, I have to ask āat what point does the convenience of fast delivery begin subtracting from the general pleasantness of life?ā
And if we become oblivious to the sound of drones, then itās that much easier for the NSA (or whomever) to spy on us with their drones.
need to write short story
stat
whirrrrr
drop
steal?
A Perspoem (neologism).
copyright
already thinking how this would be a great opportunity for drug dealersā¦buy octocopter, paint it to resemble Amazon delivery drone, send it to customers, profit!
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