So, Amazon is trying to develop a drone delivery service by air. And apparently, it's no joke? How do you guys feel about this? I think it's horrible. Air traffic, noise, and people losing their jobs...there are some things in science fiction I'd rather stay fiction.
Wow, cool. Doesn't seem very efficient though. You'd also have the problem of people following the drones to steal the packages, or worse yet, shooting them down with small arms. Seems like you could use an army of bicycle couriers and save yourself a couple million dollars.
How do they deliver to people living in apartment buildings? I live on the third floor, and my place has no balcony or anywhere a drone could drop off the package.
"It's a bird ... it's a plane ... it's Amazon Prime Air!" People have been working on this idea for more than a decade, now (maybe for more than two decades, I think). What do you think are really the biggest problems with it - regulatory ones or technical ones? It's difficult to envisage this working if there's much "traffic" about, isn't it? And easy to imagine many circumstances under which it can't work too well anyway? I can see it perhaps being theoretically desirable in smaller, densely populated areas, but you have to wonder whether a bike delivery service would be better, easier, quicker and much cheaper for those? And that's without thinking about the "weight problem" at all ... There'll be even more "UFO reports" than there are now!
That actually looks pretty cool, but that doesn't seem very cost effective. Never mind following the drone to steal the packages, I would worry about people following the drones to steal the drones as a bigger concern.
People have already presumed that the drones will have trackers in them. And yeah, I think it's cool too, but how much will it cost us to begin with? Fortunately I live more than 10 miles away from a fulfillment centre, so they can't get to me anyway.
I don't know if I entirely believe this story (yet) but I can't see past the jobs being lost in the process. When are these companies going to realise that in order to sell goods, people need money to buy them. And without jobs, people won't have money...
I saw the story on 60 Minutes. I do think it is intriguing, and probably is the wave of the future. Bezos explained that they were environmentally friendly, in that they were electric, etc., so the environmental cost involved in delivering something ordered online could much lower than what it is now. I'm not sure how much noise would be involved, and as far as people losing their jobs, I'm not certain that necessarily has to be the case.
I see 'marketing gimmick' that is unlikely to come to fruition in 5 years or whatever the goal is. They may be playing with the idea but there are so many ways it's impractical that they must know exist. Like, apartment buildings? People stealing the thing? GPS which the news report said it would navigate by is not that specific. Ever try to find a geocache that wasn't obvious? You get within 10 feet or so, but that isn't going to make it to a door stop. Unless the drone has a human operator I can't see the technology is 'almost' there.
it'll never fly... too many major downsides... though i'd be happy to see it work, since after safeway, i get most of what i need from amazon...
I think it's a cool idea, but there isn't the infrastructure for it, especially in the city. I could see this working in rural areas with lots of wide open space, but in someplace like New York? Heck no. And too, the FAA has no guidelines for how this would work. It's not good when there aren't rules for fast moving, flying objects...
