Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Amazon Unveils Delivery By Drone

zdnet.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 115 posts

Re: Amazon Unveils Delivery By Drone

#51

Post by decktech »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #19
programminggeek wrote: post #9

I think it's fair to say that between self driving cars and self guided quadracopters, it is entirely possible to have a fully or nearly autonomous end-to-end logistics system in the next 10-15 years. A lot of the problems with longer distance quadracopters could be overcome with a self driving delivery van, similar to an aircraft carrier with fighter jets.

I was a bit distraught to see human hands touching my requested item at one point in the video. Surely that can be eliminated.

I have to go outside to retrieve the package? Deal-breaker.

Re: Amazon Unveils Delivery By Drone

#52

Post by ogreyonder »

chime wrote: post #29
waterlesscloud wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm imagining the code to plan the route of the autonomous truck as it accounts for travel time/range in and out for each delivery. The truck never stops, optimizing its route for all the drones it has in the air. Writing that code would be a pretty cool job.

It's probably been patented already.

Ugh. You say this as a joke, but I vote we come up with a list of features that could be cited as prior art and stick a hash of 'em into the BTC block chain.

Re: Amazon Unveils Delivery By Drone

#53

Post by dylandrop »

My main concern is environmental impact. I'd be interested in an analysis of the effects of producing these drones + environmental cost of powering them + environmental cost of producing those yellow boxes vs. cost of delivery truck.

Edit: Sincerely curious as to why this got voted down. Is environmental impact not a possible issue with this system?

Re: Amazon Unveils Delivery By Drone

#54

Post by waterlesscloud »

electromagnetic wrote: post #44
maxerickson wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I imagine much of the time the best optimization would end up being a single drone.

Only in major urban areas where you see a UPS/Fedex truck literally go a block before stopping again would you likely see multiple drones.

But the bigger picture here is to expand what you order from Amazon. The eventual goal would be more along the lines of small singleton items you'd run to a convenience/drug/grocery store for.

Even after you account for a minimum price to make it worthwhile, that's many, many more deliveries than UPS/FedEx does.

Re: Amazon Unveils Delivery By Drone

#56

Post by george88b »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #19
programminggeek wrote: post #9

I think it's fair to say that between self driving cars and self guided quadracopters, it is entirely possible to have a fully or nearly autonomous end-to-end logistics system in the next 10-15 years. A lot of the problems with longer distance quadracopters could be overcome with a self driving delivery van, similar to an aircraft carrier with fighter jets.

I was a bit distraught to see human hands touching my requested item at one point in the video. Surely that can be eliminated.

Maybe this is what they need:

http://www.rethinkrobotics.com/products/baxter/

Re: Amazon Unveils Delivery By Drone

#57

Post by baddox »

decktech wrote: post #51
waterlesscloud wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was a bit distraught to see human hands touching my requested item at one point in the video. Surely that can be eliminated.

I have to go outside to retrieve the package? Deal-breaker.

In all seriousness, there's no reason that homes or apartment complexes couldn't have fairly standardized drone landing pads. Clever people could probably rig up some sort of simple elevator to bring the shipments inside. Incidentally, the landing pads could also be marked in a standard way to assist in computer vision controlled automated landing.

Re: Amazon Unveils Delivery By Drone

#58

Post by baddox »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #19
programminggeek wrote: post #9

I think it's fair to say that between self driving cars and self guided quadracopters, it is entirely possible to have a fully or nearly autonomous end-to-end logistics system in the next 10-15 years. A lot of the problems with longer distance quadracopters could be overcome with a self driving delivery van, similar to an aircraft carrier with fighter jets.

I was a bit distraught to see human hands touching my requested item at one point in the video. Surely that can be eliminated.

Humorously, fetching a small package with a well-defined size and shelf location and putting it into a standardized box on a conveyor belt is by far the easiest step of this process to automate.

Re: Amazon Unveils Delivery By Drone

#59

Post by baddox »

danenania wrote: post #36

If these get mass adoption, won't it make for highly congested skies in urban areas? Another question is would they be a threat to birds? The technology side is cool, but I don't relish the thought of looking out the window and seeing the air packed with delivery drones going to and fro.

I think that's a misplaced concern. I'd rather have them in the skies than on the streets, competing with personal automobiles, pedestrians, bicyclists, etc.
Post reply on HN