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Amazon Shows Off New Prime Air Drone with Hybrid Design

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Re: Amazon Shows Off New Prime Air Drone with Hybrid Design

#111

Post by lazerwalker »

toyg wrote: post #97
blazespin wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with the last one, but ground delivery robots would make way more sense. I don't know about 30-60 minutes, however. The soccer shoe emergency can't really be that big of a market. Emergency medicine by drone delivery I get, but the reason people go shopping nowadays is either grocery or an excuse to get out of the house. Drones are never going to eliminate the excuse to get out of the house factor.

One word (well, acronym): DIY. Middle-class suburban dad is trying to fix the newly-bought house, but he's constantly running out of the right size of screws and/or stuff he didn't even know he needed. At the moment that scenario results in a a lot of trips to the hardware store, but cheap 60-minute deliveries would change it for the better. Neonatal supplies, cleaning supplies, you name it -- the sort of thing you r…

To be fair, in the long run the DIY use case is more likely to be served via personal fabrication. For small finicky bits like screws, being able to print-on-demand is going to be quicker and easier than waiting for a drone.

Re: Amazon Shows Off New Prime Air Drone with Hybrid Design

#113

Post by saryant »

mnglkhn2 wrote: post #91
mapt wrote: post #22

Here's what I think is more likely: A small regional airport is taken over by Amazon. They build hangars and warehouses onsite. It's ramped up to land and fly a big turbine-powered mothership every five minutes. The warehouse dispatches packages to stacks of delivery drones like the one pictured in the video. The mothership loads the delivery drones in order. The motherships take off regularly, and then as the mother…

I believe your scenarios (especially the "truck dispenser") address the market Amazon has in mind: the suburbia. If you notice, both video examples show the drone delivering at a house. It seems obvious that an urban setting is difficult to address. And actually delivery costs are higher in the suburbs, due to population spread, than in the cities. The interesting thing is how do UPS/FedEx/USPS feel about this, consi…

UPS has been experimenting with drones for a while.

Re: Amazon Shows Off New Prime Air Drone with Hybrid Design

#114

Post by foobarian »

mschuster91 wrote: post #103
mnglkhn2 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe your scenarios (especially the "truck dispenser") address the market Amazon has in mind: the suburbia. If you notice, both video examples show the drone delivering at a house. It seems obvious that an urban setting is difficult to address. And actually delivery costs are higher in the suburbs, due to population spread, than in the cities. The interesting thing is how do UPS/FedEx/USPS feel about this, consi…

USPS won't care, their (legally protected) business is shipping letters.

I always thought USPS would be a perfect partner for Amazon since their post offices would be ideal takeoff points for the drones. They are everywhere and they already deal with receiving packages.

Re: Amazon Shows Off New Prime Air Drone with Hybrid Design

#115

Post by mark-r »

8ig8 wrote: post #64
mapt wrote: post #22

Here's what I think is more likely: A small regional airport is taken over by Amazon. They build hangars and warehouses onsite. It's ramped up to land and fly a big turbine-powered mothership every five minutes. The warehouse dispatches packages to stacks of delivery drones like the one pictured in the video. The mothership loads the delivery drones in order. The motherships take off regularly, and then as the mother…

As a one time hooliganish teenager, I wonder if these will become targets for slingshots (or more sophisticated surface-to-air weapons).

When Amazon first announced their intent to use drones, one of my friends started using a phrase: "Skeet shooting, with prizes!"

Re: Amazon Shows Off New Prime Air Drone with Hybrid Design

#116

Post by function_seven »

mc32 wrote: post #102
arjie wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why shouldn't we demand immediate perfection? Why should we have to choose between serving someone else and serving me? Why shouldn't governments immediately change? All the problems with having these things today are implementation problems not fundamental issues.

We want a delay between what we think we want and what we get from government, else we get majority rules democracy which is not far removed from mob-mentality government.

I think you're stretching a little to get from faster merchandise delivery to mob-rule government.

Or, your objections would have been valid against the railroad and the telegraph as well (both of those reduced friction tremendously).

I get the gist of what you're saying, but I don't agree that artificially limiting technological innovation, or improvements in efficiencies is beneficial at all.

Re: Amazon Shows Off New Prime Air Drone with Hybrid Design

#117

Post by guroot »

zw123456 wrote: post #69

For a while I have thought that a cool way of doing this would be if the drones could fly close to high voltage power lines and use induction to power it and charge the battery. Then when it gets close to the destination it could peel away from the high tension lines and use battery for to cover the last mile. That way you could have the warehouse in some industrial area or whatever. They could make a deal with the p…

Wouldn't that pose problems for the navigation equipment?

Re: Amazon Shows Off New Prime Air Drone with Hybrid Design

#118

Post by thinkling »

mschuster91 wrote: post #103
mnglkhn2 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe your scenarios (especially the "truck dispenser") address the market Amazon has in mind: the suburbia. If you notice, both video examples show the drone delivering at a house. It seems obvious that an urban setting is difficult to address. And actually delivery costs are higher in the suburbs, due to population spread, than in the cities. The interesting thing is how do UPS/FedEx/USPS feel about this, consi…

USPS won't care, their (legally protected) business is shipping letters.

USPS was worried enough to agree to start delivering packages for Amazon on Sundays, which must've required some interesting negotiations with their unions.

Re: Amazon Shows Off New Prime Air Drone with Hybrid Design

#119

Post by mark-r »

kriro wrote: post #104

My major takeaway is that they are trying to push as close to instant delivery as possible (30 minutes seems like pretty remarkable goal). Potentially taking out the delivery service middleman is also good. I have my doubts (regulation, security concerns, social doubt a la Google glass) but overall it seems like a good long term strategy to try this. If they ever come close to hitting the 30 minute delivery it also o…

Just imagine ordering your hot pizza delivery from Amazon instead of Domino's for example.

Re: Amazon Shows Off New Prime Air Drone with Hybrid Design

#120

Post by mark-r »

zw123456 wrote: post #69

For a while I have thought that a cool way of doing this would be if the drones could fly close to high voltage power lines and use induction to power it and charge the battery. Then when it gets close to the destination it could peel away from the high tension lines and use battery for to cover the last mile. That way you could have the warehouse in some industrial area or whatever. They could make a deal with the p…

I once worked in a building that had one of those power lines running next to it. Was curious if there was a measurable effect on a car parked under it in the parking lot. A multimeter found 600 volts between the car and ground.
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