Amazon Unveils Flying Robot Delivery Drones
- Thread starter Steven Bogos
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"It isn't Amazon's fault you have a strange roof sir. You should have told us about it when you made the call."slash2x said:
"...have they considered Amazon pet insurance?"J Tyran said:
I can see bored teengers trying to hunt these things down. It'd be like pot-luck present hunting.
Yeah, this will undoubtedly all fall apart.
But if it's true that the technology for this exists that's pretty fuckin' awesome.
But if it's true that the technology for this exists that's pretty fuckin' awesome.
I am seeing a lot of people talking about how easy it would be for a kid to grab a bb gun and shoot one of these down. I really doubt that. I mean, hitting a moving airborne target is not easy. A bb gun, even if it could do enough damage to the drone to crash it, is likely not accurate enough over a distance to hit the drone. It would take at least a .22 to have even a tiny ghost of a chance to actually hit it, and there we are getting into actual firearms. And despite what people tend to think about gun owners they don't just fire their guns into the air for the hell of it. That is extremely dangerous and will get you jail time.
Not to mention the fact that the thing will wiz by in seconds. You would probably have to be waiting, gun loaded and ready, actively scanning the skys, to even get a single shot off. And most areas will only see one or two deliveries a day, if that, for a large neighborhood. About the only time the thing will be vulnerable is during the landing and take off parts of the trip, which means a kid will have to be ready with his projectile and just so happen to be in exactly the right place at exactly the right time.
And you can bet that the first time this does happen Amazon and the government are going to come down hard on whoever did it. Property destruction and public endangerment are not light charges. People are not going to risk jail time to shoot down a robot postman and you can bet that parents will teach their kids not to do it because it will be the parents that take the flak if their kids are morons.
Frankly, while there are many problems to be solved, kids with potato guns are not a big one.
I mean, you will probably have one get shot down every once in a while, but no where near often enough to make a slight dent in amount of money Amazon could make on this.
Not to mention the fact that the thing will wiz by in seconds. You would probably have to be waiting, gun loaded and ready, actively scanning the skys, to even get a single shot off. And most areas will only see one or two deliveries a day, if that, for a large neighborhood. About the only time the thing will be vulnerable is during the landing and take off parts of the trip, which means a kid will have to be ready with his projectile and just so happen to be in exactly the right place at exactly the right time.
And you can bet that the first time this does happen Amazon and the government are going to come down hard on whoever did it. Property destruction and public endangerment are not light charges. People are not going to risk jail time to shoot down a robot postman and you can bet that parents will teach their kids not to do it because it will be the parents that take the flak if their kids are morons.
Frankly, while there are many problems to be solved, kids with potato guns are not a big one.
I mean, you will probably have one get shot down every once in a while, but no where near often enough to make a slight dent in amount of money Amazon could make on this.
Wow, a lot of people seem to think that hitting a small moving target flying above them is easy. BB guns, potato guns, no way. Shooting one of those down reliably would most likely take a shotgun, a weapon that is neither quiet or subtle. And unless you're sitting outside the Amazon warehouse, or know that a drone is headed your way, you'd be lucky to actually see one flying by. Also, Amazon would surely blacklist areas if they had trouble with lost drones or packages.
Plus, I'm sure that Amazon would allow for special delivery instructions. Like having the package dropped off on your back porch. I know my apartment balcony is pretty big, I bet one of those drones could land on it. I also bet I could rig up a landing pad I could attach to the balcony railing when I'm expecting a package.
I live about 15 minutes from one of their distribution centers. I'd gladly be a test recipient for packages to see how well the drones work.
Plus, I'm sure that Amazon would allow for special delivery instructions. Like having the package dropped off on your back porch. I know my apartment balcony is pretty big, I bet one of those drones could land on it. I also bet I could rig up a landing pad I could attach to the balcony railing when I'm expecting a package.
I live about 15 minutes from one of their distribution centers. I'd gladly be a test recipient for packages to see how well the drones work.
It's just a commercial for Amazon Prime, people. Of course they don't/won't have delivery drones.
--Morology!
--Morology!
A couple things that might make this more expensive and less effective than it sounds...
1. Non-flat land areas, like say the Rocky Mtns or the Appalachians... I just think that navigating these areas may be a bit much for those package carriers...
2. Inclement weather, snow or heavy rain/winds - Easy to lose a package and the drone
3. Sucks for anyone living near an airfield/airport - All we would need is one of these drones to get sucked up into a 747's engine on take-off and cause a major disaster.
1. Non-flat land areas, like say the Rocky Mtns or the Appalachians... I just think that navigating these areas may be a bit much for those package carriers...
2. Inclement weather, snow or heavy rain/winds - Easy to lose a package and the drone
3. Sucks for anyone living near an airfield/airport - All we would need is one of these drones to get sucked up into a 747's engine on take-off and cause a major disaster.
I'd like to say "Yea but they had to have thought of that!" But after the Xbox One DRM incident I really can't rule anything out. I think it is a little unrealistic as you have to deal with the human factor of people doing a snatch and grab or just shooting them out of the sky.rhizhim said:
Also would they just shut down their entire delivery system in the event of high winds? Because I'd imagine this would cause a sudden excess of trucks.
More than any of these other problems with the drones themselves, the thing delivers your package via open-air, even if they pack it with special, weather-resistant packaging, there's plenty of other things that could go wrong, moreso than in the back of a truck. Basically I wouldn't recommend these to order something that has only one in stock.
I see this whole shooting-them-down thing to be a big potential problem with the service...It's an excellent idea and very Hannah-Barbara but I see the risk of interception being unreasonably high.WWmelb said:I gotta make another potato gun and go hunting amazon drones lol. i can see their little robot faces mounted on my gaming room wall
Seriously though, apart from the whole, shooting them, stealing them kinda deal.. this is very cool.
These are all really easily solved problems, as in so easy that they really aren't even problems.amaranth_dru said:
1. This service would be limited to a place within 10 miles of an Amazon distribution center. Amazon distribution centers are located in heavily populated areas. Heavily populated areas are generally flat. And even if they are not, these are flying machines. I find it really unlikely that there is going to be an obstacle so large that it cannot be flown over or around within the radius. And even if there was, all they have to do is not provide this service out there because anyone living in an area so uneven that a miniature helicopter cannot navigate the area is going to be very insignificant to Amazon's overall business. There will just not be enough of them to matter.
2. Since the flight radius of these drones is planned to be so small a round trip, even on the outside edge of operation, really should only take 1 hour max, and that is if these things are really slow. We have accurate enough weather prediction to know what will happen in the next hour. So all Amazon has to do is make sure it is known that they don't send out drones in bad weather.
3. This is the easiest one of all. All we have to do is program the thing to avoid important air space like this. Or just don't include areas beyond the airport in the coverage area. And restricted air space doesn't exactly make up a large portion of residential areas.
All together these things barley even scratch the viability of the plan.
No, it is not.Kyrdra said:
they stopt doing that in 2006.
GPS hase 2 channels, a civilian one(Standard Positioning Service "SPS" and a military one(Precise Positioning Service "PPS")
wont bore you with details, but take a look here if you like:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Positioning_System
what would work is that you must print out a marker with QR code and leave on your doorstep/lawn.
And the onboard camera wil pick it up.
"What was the address of the last successful delivery? OK, let's go."rhizhim said:
Pretty sure they would come claim the drone, with police in tow.
OT: As someone eagerly waiting at the door for the new Ratchet and Clank right now, I say this can't come soon enough.
Though is it legal to shoot at anything moving through the sky? Like a helicoptor or low flying plane? Do that and you'll get a felony charge pretty quick. Try to shoot them down and then keep them, and risk the built in GPS finding where you live, sending the camera data to Amazon, and then having a slew of police officers at your doorstep within the day.Shoggoth2588 said:I see this whole shooting-them-down thing to be a big potential problem with the service...It's an excellent idea and very Hannah-Barbara but I see the risk of interception being unreasonably high.WWmelb said:I gotta make another potato gun and go hunting amazon drones lol. i can see their little robot faces mounted on my gaming room wall
Seriously though, apart from the whole, shooting them, stealing them kinda deal.. this is very cool.
