Amazon.com: Making their workforce disappear

[Gumby]

Turns out delivery drones are already a reality in China...

Here's a video of a drone delivery service for a bakery in downtown Shanghai.

http://youtu.be/fXwgwSkujOY

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Here's a news report for a China-based retailer, SF Express, that is testing drones for deliveries to remote areas:

http://news.carnoc.com/list/260/260523.html

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China will see more of these corporate drones in action before we will — likely in the next year or two since they only need to obtain a permit and clear their operations with local air traffic controllers (no FAA-type regulations needed).

[Benko]

Gumby,

Apologies if I came across as too negative, yesterday was bad day.

I'm simply picturing suburban neighborhoods I know where the houses are packed close together, where there are lots of trees, telephone poles, kids playing and animals. 

"Helicopters, airplanes, automobiles and delivery trucks have all hurt plenty of civilians on the ground "
So what.  Civilization will proceed quite well if a drone nevers enters a suburban neighborhood.  Point being, that this has to be made pretty safe or my personal view is that it should not be allowed anywhere near crowded suburbia.  OTOH this does sound like a really good way to assist delivery to rural areas, where there is much less danger of hurting anything (cows don't move rapidly).

And perhaps I am being overly concerned, perhaps the drones are perfectly safe if one runs into a little kid.

[Gumby]

Apologies if I came across as too negative, yesterday was bad day.

Totally understand. Happens to all of us!

I'm simply picturing suburban neighborhoods I know where the houses are packed close together, where there are lots of trees, telephone poles, kids playing and animals.

Agreed. I totally agree that those will probably disqualify those locations. I suspect people's properties will need to have certain qualifications and comply with certain guidelines — such as an open drop area.

should not be allowed anywhere near crowded suburbia.

Sounds about right. Helicopters used to be allowed to land on rooftops in Manhattan, and later they were banned after one fell off the Pan Am building. So, I imagine they will be banned in some cities.

OTOH this does sound like a really good way to assist delivery to rural areas, where there is much less danger of hurting anything (cows don't move rapidly).

I had the same thought. But, the drones only have a range of a 10-mile drop radius, and, Bezos implied that they would like to target higher population areas. Again, I agree with you that I don't see how it will work in a city or crowded suburbia.

And perhaps I am being overly concerned, perhaps the drones are perfectly safe if one runs into a little kid.

I think people need to take some responsibility for their own kids. A UPS track backs into people's driveways and there's all sorts of beeping and warning, etc. A UPS truck ran over a tiny dog on my street last year when it darted out into the street. It was terrible — and the driver felt awful. There are dangers everywhere. The drone will do the same thing — shout warnings — and probably have infrared cameras that recognize kids around in a yard and abort landings in such a situation.

I'll agree with you that there are logistical problems, but I do think these drones will become a reality in our lifetime whether they are perfect or not.

[smurff]

They might even have their own defenses onboard in case they encounter someone about to use them for target practice.  Imagine skeet shooting where the skeets shot back!

Even if someone managed to shoot them down, there would be actual images of who the shooter was and where to find them.  By the time they were ready to deploy in the USA, there would be so much rich detail--maybe even a DNA sniffer inside--that there would be no question of who shot.

[dualstow]

They might even have their own defenses onboard in case they encounter someone about to use them for target practice.  Imagine skeet shooting where the skeets shot back!

So that's what Obi Wan Kenobi was talking about when he mentioned the Droid Wars.

[Gumby]

They might even have their own defenses onboard in case they encounter someone about to use them for target practice.  Imagine skeet shooting where the skeets shot back!

Even if someone managed to shoot them down, there would be actual images of who the shooter was and where to find them.  By the time they were ready to deploy in the USA, there would be so much rich detail--maybe even a DNA sniffer inside--that there would be no question of who shot.

I believe the term is 'countermeasures'. Just guessing, but I think it's probably some kind of Federal offense to shoot down FAA-approved aircraft/drone. And I doubt people would try that very often in the urban areas they claim to be getting these ready for. But, I agree with Benko and I admit that I don't quite get the logistics of how these would work in an urban setting.

My guess is that these will only work with customers who have agreed to a waiver and can assure that they have a 30'x30' landing area that's unencumbered by branches, etc. I suppose that people who want 30-minute deliveries will do everything they can to make it work on their end — so they can have and maintain that convenience.

[smurff]

I believe the term is 'countermeasures'. Just guessing, but I think it's probably some kind of Federal offense to shoot down FAA-approved aircraft/drone. And I doubt people would try that very often in the urban areas they claim to be getting these ready for. But, I agree with Benko and I admit that I don't quite get the logistics of how these would work in an urban setting.

Having a law against doing something stupid won't stop people,especially teenagers (who don't usually follow the law) from doing it.  Especially when the target is so tempting, and has a name like "drone."  They might even make a competition out of it, with all props to whomever shoots down the most drones.

For some reason many people get off on shining a laser pointer airplanes traveling the night sky.  Totally a federal crime.  Pilots have gone blind, plane loads of passengers endangered, all because some fool wants to shake a light at the night sky.  I can see a drone with a package of electronic consumer goodies attached as a really tempting target for some people.

[Pointedstick]

Relevant:

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/10/us/colora ... ?hpt=hp_t2

[Ad Orientem]

[vnatale]

Resurrecting an old one (from December 2013)!

First post was from Gumby providing an article about Amazon, in the future, providing delivery via drones.

Almost all subsequent posts expressed a fair amount of skepticism of it ever coming to fruition.

Decided to see where it is at six years later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Prime_Air

"Amazon Prime Air is a drone delivery service currently in development by Amazon. It is expected to begin operations in select cities starting late 2019.[1]"

Tomorrow is absolutely the last day that could possibly meet the "late 2019" timeline cited above.

On a further search cannot tell if it is yet actually happening anywhere on a regular basis. But it does seem that, at some point, in the not too distant future, It WILL come to fruition.

Vinny

[Don]

Gumby was a great contributor. I hope he's doing well.

[rocketdog]

It's not the drones we need to fear... it's the nanobots:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prey_(novel)