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Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer

bloomberg.com

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Re: Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer

#81

Post by snrplfth »

huehehue wrote: post #69
51Cards wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From everyone else in your building? What's top stop the guy in 5B going "Hey... package... thanks" I see a huge uptick in stolen packages. Heck the drones themselves would make a nice parts source flying free over the city. Just have to pick off a couple of them now and then. I think the point when this becomes in any way practical is really really far off. Interesting demo for sure but pretty sure I'll never have s…

When the regulators start regulating, I imagine they'll introduce serious penalties for shooting down an aircraft.

I'm pretty sure that shooting down aircraft is already illegal. IANAL, though.

Re: Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer

#82

Post by lettergram »

gamegoblin wrote: post #38
stevecalifornia wrote: post #20

Vacations are already being soiled by people flying loud drones in areas of natural beauty, now we get to have our day-to-day skies soiled by fleets of drones delivering popcorn. Am I the only one who doesn't want this specifically because of the noise nuisance?

According to the video, they fly ~400ft up. Can anyone with more quadcopter experience describe how noisy that is? I know they are loud when they are nearby, but 400ft is far.

Interesting, technically don't home owners own the air above their house up to several hundred feet? What if I don't want it flying over me, can I knock it down?

Re: Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer

#83

Post by FroshKiller »

zapt02 wrote: post #52
vorpalhex wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They probably get a bonk on the head and checked for a concussion. Better then being hit by a delivery truck I suppose.

Sounds like a best-case scenario, those drones fly pretty high and are very heavy. Sounds more likely that it would be a fatality.

A fatality involving one person rather than two drivers, more than two drivers, one driver and a pedestrian, one driver and multiple pedestrians....

Re: Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer

#84

Post by tqkxzugoaupvwqr »

FroshKiller wrote: post #26
stevecalifornia wrote: post #20

Vacations are already being soiled by people flying loud drones in areas of natural beauty, now we get to have our day-to-day skies soiled by fleets of drones delivering popcorn. Am I the only one who doesn't want this specifically because of the noise nuisance?

I don't know about you being the only one, but personally, I certainly prefer the buzz if it means fewer vehicles on the roads every day.

Delivery trucks are way more quiet for each ton of goods they deliver. I’d rather have two trucks filled to the top on the road once a day instead of dozens of delivery drones delivering goods around the clock. It means the customer won’t get his toothbrush 30 minutes after ordering but at least the rest can live in peace.

Re: Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer

#85

Post by jsjohnst »

gamegoblin wrote: post #38
stevecalifornia wrote: post #20

Vacations are already being soiled by people flying loud drones in areas of natural beauty, now we get to have our day-to-day skies soiled by fleets of drones delivering popcorn. Am I the only one who doesn't want this specifically because of the noise nuisance?

According to the video, they fly ~400ft up. Can anyone with more quadcopter experience describe how noisy that is? I know they are loud when they are nearby, but 400ft is far.

I've flown in an area with 15 or so of 4/6/8 rotor UAVs in relatively close proximity all about 250-350ft up and not only could you not hear them at all, you couldn't really see them either (the octorcopters looked vaguely like a bird). That was kind of the point of the event, we were all FPV flying and cooperatively calling out maneuvers to avoid hitting each other.

(Edit: I'm obviously talking about it not hovering directly over your head at this altitude, in that case you will hear it. I'm talking about it passing over you at a fast horizontal speed at 300ft above you that you won't hear it unless your in near dead silent environment with no background white noise).

Re: Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer

#86

Post by wehadfun »

vkou wrote: post #53
wehadfun wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure! The comment I replied to, seems to imply that hijacking UPS trucks is a non-existent, or rare event. A simple Google Search seems to indicate that it happens all the time. There for making the original OPs concern somewhat valid.

Every year, without fail, there are people in the world who are killed by goats. This doesn't mean that I need to worry about goat attacks.

Your logic is off. If you spend a lot of time around goats then worrying about a goat attack is valid. Similar to how people in North Dakota do not worry about hurricane but people in the Florida Keys do.

Re: Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer

#87

Post by FroshKiller »

tqkxzugoaupvwqr wrote: post #84
FroshKiller wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about you being the only one, but personally, I certainly prefer the buzz if it means fewer vehicles on the roads every day.

Delivery trucks are way more quiet for each ton of goods they deliver. I’d rather have two trucks filled to the top on the road once a day instead of dozens of delivery drones delivering goods around the clock. It means the customer won’t get his toothbrush 30 minutes after ordering but at least the rest can live in peace.

To be clear, I don't really give a damn about the noise either way. I care about reducing the risk of loss of life in automobile accidents.

Re: Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer

#88

Post by John23832 »

FroshKiller wrote: post #77
John23832 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USP, FedEx and the USPS all leave your packages in unsecured areas. These drones would have to literally drop your packages off in a city. Those are very different actions. The logistics of even getting close enough to the ground to not obliterate your package, in an open enough area, while avoiding people and other obstacles (both stationary and moving) is a nonstarter for even small cities imo. Good luck in NYC.

You're overstating the dropping thing. I've had shipments with plenty of rough deliveries and rougher trips in the truck on the way to be delivered. Being carried in the air and lightly dropped from 10 or 20 feet off the ground isn't going to hurt my Blu-Ray copy of Captain America: Civil War. I think when you guys say "cities," you're talking about some kind of nonexistent arcology of mile-high cyberpunk buildings w…

Yea, a blu-ray movie isn't hurt by a 20 foot drop. A blu-ray player is. Most packages are not made for shocks, just constant pressure (think the difference between someone punching you and someone sitting on you).

Also, I'd bet that what you consider a safe range for drone operation and what a federal aviation safety official (or non-US equivalent) considers safe are two totally different animals.

Re: Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer

#89

Post by jsjohnst »

lettergram wrote: post #82
gamegoblin wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the video, they fly ~400ft up. Can anyone with more quadcopter experience describe how noisy that is? I know they are loud when they are nearby, but 400ft is far.

Interesting, technically don't home owners own the air above their house up to several hundred feet? What if I don't want it flying over me, can I knock it down?

If you could knock a drone down at 400ft up, I'd really be impressed. Your accuracy would have to be incredible.

Re: Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer

#90

Post by gamegoblin »

lettergram wrote: post #82
gamegoblin wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the video, they fly ~400ft up. Can anyone with more quadcopter experience describe how noisy that is? I know they are loud when they are nearby, but 400ft is far.

Interesting, technically don't home owners own the air above their house up to several hundred feet? What if I don't want it flying over me, can I knock it down?

I imagine they'll mostly fly over streets. That would also reduce risk of catastrophic failure killing a pedestrian, since a typical car roof can certainly survive impact of one of these things.

It would also mitigate sound issues since road-noise would easily drown out a 400ft high drone.

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