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Amazon Prime Air

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Re: Amazon Prime Air

#261

Post by irtefa »

jmduke wrote: post #176

(Disclaimer: I work for Amazon, but not for anything related to this. This is the first time I'm learning of Prime Air.) I'm somewhat disheartened by the skepticism of a lot of comments from HN, Reddit, and Twitter. Not stuff like "I wonder how they'll handle adverse weather" (which I think is intellectually interesting) but stuff like "As soon as one of these kills a dog it's done for". What merit is there in rootin…

A lot of companies were talking about using drones for this kind of work. It's Amazon who is taking the risk to actually execute it publicly. Even if they fail, others will learn from it. Kudos to them for giving it a shot!

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#262

Post by rossjudson »

lancewiggs wrote: post #240

Responses that I have not yet seen in the comments. 1: These could deliver into my apartment on the nth floor by coming through an open window, as well as the mentioned balconies and front yards or the roof. 2: We could not just set our delivery point up using a app on our smartphones (GPS wtc), but those phones could also broadcast over the various radios to the device and even use the camera to help the UAV navigat…

I could deliver to the nth floor with a giant slingshot, angry birds style.

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#263

Post by enraged_camel »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #248

Do you get to keep the box? :-) That is a pretty bold vision for product delivery. On the one hand we have "software eating the world" (everything is a download) and on the other "hardware is cool again" (drone delivery). I sometimes think though that this may become this generation's "jet pack."

>>On the one hand we have "software eating the world" (everything is a download) and on the other "hardware is cool again" (drone delivery).

The hardware in this case must be driven by incredibly complex software, both on the drone and in the central HQ that controls the fleet. Without that software, these things would be no different than regular RC quadcopters.

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#264

Post by 3pt14159 »

goronbjorn wrote: post #208
jmduke wrote: post #176

(Disclaimer: I work for Amazon, but not for anything related to this. This is the first time I'm learning of Prime Air.) I'm somewhat disheartened by the skepticism of a lot of comments from HN, Reddit, and Twitter. Not stuff like "I wonder how they'll handle adverse weather" (which I think is intellectually interesting) but stuff like "As soon as one of these kills a dog it's done for". What merit is there in rootin…

> What merit is there in rooting for failure for failure's sake? You must be new to Hacker News…

Or old.

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#265

Post by chuckp »

The ire towards "drones" is quite puzzling to me, most technology came from an initial military backing and soon this will be our daily lives.

Right now you can not legally fly a "drone" commercially, all flight by multirotor UAS over US soil is classified as hobby, educational, or government right now. That is where 2015 comes in, the FAA is suppose to make a ruling dictating commercial flight regulations and processes. (http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-02/under-newly...)

Currently two vehicles have been certified for flight but they are in a ~20k price range. The estimates on this vehicle are very reasonable for technological advances in the next two years. The opensource community has already created the software technology and a multirotor device of this size could conceivably run for 30min especially with advances is battery and motor/prop technologies.

Perhaps Amazon wants to attempt to shift America's focus on drones, and how they can have positive effects on our lives. Sounds like a good plan especially if they are able to provide emergency supplies to remote locations, or just get us use to them assisting in daily activities.

Wonder what it costs to charge ~15000mah battery vs the driving cost.

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#266

Post by caiob »

I think this is great news. It's innovation and will cause a even bigger revolution in the retail business. Obviously, there's a lot to be considered before actually putting it out there, but I believe this will be very successful.

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#267

Post by markdown »

bigtunacan wrote: post #255
jmduke wrote: post #176

(Disclaimer: I work for Amazon, but not for anything related to this. This is the first time I'm learning of Prime Air.) I'm somewhat disheartened by the skepticism of a lot of comments from HN, Reddit, and Twitter. Not stuff like "I wonder how they'll handle adverse weather" (which I think is intellectually interesting) but stuff like "As soon as one of these kills a dog it's done for". What merit is there in rootin…

This is not a good idea. http://nypost.com/2013/09/05/man-decapitated-by-remote-contr...

This is not a toy helicopter.

This is a delivery vehicle equipped with the best collision detection technology Amazon can find, approved by some of the best profit-motivated, liability-averse lawyers in the world.

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#268

Post by InclinedPlane »

bigtunacan wrote: post #255
jmduke wrote: post #176

(Disclaimer: I work for Amazon, but not for anything related to this. This is the first time I'm learning of Prime Air.) I'm somewhat disheartened by the skepticism of a lot of comments from HN, Reddit, and Twitter. Not stuff like "I wonder how they'll handle adverse weather" (which I think is intellectually interesting) but stuff like "As soon as one of these kills a dog it's done for". What merit is there in rootin…

This is not a good idea. http://nypost.com/2013/09/05/man-decapitated-by-remote-contr...

http://www.browncafe.com/community/threads/ups-involved-in-3...

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#269

Post by harryh »

crusso wrote: post #242
harryh wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Scylla and Charybdis of innovation. Open your mind too far and you accept too many wacky ideas. Close it to much and you'll never see what's possible.

Sure, but if I could turn the societal dial a few clicks toward critical thinking vs day dreaming, I'd do it. The unquestionable success of the Scientific Method has shown that careful analysis and requirement of experimental proof far outstrip bumbling about with our own natural human level of random thoughts that we label "creativity".

I dunno. Maybe.

But then I look around and see more need for creativity now than ever. Technology is changing faster than ever and that's impacting society in ways previously only speculated about. To me that means there's a lot of opportunity out there waiting to be captured by people crazy enough to do a little dreaming.

Ideas are delicate things.

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#270

Post by InclinedPlane »

crusso wrote: post #242
harryh wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Scylla and Charybdis of innovation. Open your mind too far and you accept too many wacky ideas. Close it to much and you'll never see what's possible.

Sure, but if I could turn the societal dial a few clicks toward critical thinking vs day dreaming, I'd do it. The unquestionable success of the Scientific Method has shown that careful analysis and requirement of experimental proof far outstrip bumbling about with our own natural human level of random thoughts that we label "creativity".

Creativity and critical thinking aren't opposite ends of the same scale, in many ways they are orthogonal.

Similarly, critical thinking and blind pessimism aren't the same thing, though many people mistake them to be.

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