Earlier quoted context omitted.
This sounds like your neighborhood needs some traffic calming. 20 is plenty.
It's funny you should say that. I've posted about traffic calming in my neighborhood before! It's calmed in one direction but not the other. Still, even going 20 or 35 mph is enough to kill someone, and 20 feet is not a lot of room, especially with no barrier between the sidewalk and the car. Last weekend, a driver swerved to hit a car that was stopped in the street and struck the tree on the corner of my lot. Luckil…
Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer
151–160 of 204 posts
Re: Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
>so won't work in a city, since the payload is unsecured after the drones drop it off My building's roof is at least as secure as its lobby.
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…
Basic human decency, reciprocal honesty, a $60 Wifi surveillance camera.
Re: Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
Aviation law likely trumps that, especially for explicitly permitted (commercial license) operations. And in most countries "dangerous interference with aircraft" or something similar has pretty harsh penalties attached. I think there already have been a few example cases, so there should be info at least for the US.
Re: Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer
#154Are there things these drones can't deliver, because only USPS can legally deliver that class of item?
Re: Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer
#155Re: Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer
#156I feel like this is a stunt. Drone delivery only works with customers that have private backyards - so won't work in a city, since the payload is unsecured after the drones drop it off. In a suburban/rural context, density is lower, meaning that with the limited range of drones, distribution centers won't be able to take advantage of density. Thus the range of products available at each distribution center will be mu…
It makes no sense in dense urban environments in the same sense that storage lockers don't make sense in the burbs.
Re: Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer
#157Earlier 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…
Re: Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer
#158I feel like this is a stunt. Drone delivery only works with customers that have private backyards - so won't work in a city, since the payload is unsecured after the drones drop it off. In a suburban/rural context, density is lower, meaning that with the limited range of drones, distribution centers won't be able to take advantage of density. Thus the range of products available at each distribution center will be mu…
Re: Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer
#159I feel like this is a stunt. Drone delivery only works with customers that have private backyards - so won't work in a city, since the payload is unsecured after the drones drop it off. In a suburban/rural context, density is lower, meaning that with the limited range of drones, distribution centers won't be able to take advantage of density. Thus the range of products available at each distribution center will be mu…
Want to get more advanced and efficient? When your package is delivered, Amazon sends you an access key to the dock. You can now go to the rooftop, type in your access key, and get access to the room to get your package. After it's claimed, your access key expires. This means only people with packages inside the dock have access. Yes, technically if you get a package delivered, you could access the room, and steal a package from someone else. However, there would likely be a camera in the room, and there's a record of you having access, so I can't see it being an issue. You could offset the risk even more by having 10 compartments in the docking area, so there's a 10x less chance of someone else having access to the same compartment. Right now I walk through my modern condo and see packages sitting in front of doors, in hallways without cameras, and there isn't a problem.
There might be 1,000 people living in a high rise, or thousands working in one. It would be easy to get tens of thousands of people access to air deliveries at home and work with a dozen docks. It's also a great selling point for offices and condos. "Our building allows you to receive air deliveries."
Re: Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Who knows really? Don't mind me, just going to take my AA gun back home.
(Plus, let's also factor in the fact firing weapons inside a city is illegal. But don't mind me)