71–80 of 115 posts
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.
"How does the package get from the self driving car to your porch?"
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Altering natura ecosystem further is more favorable than inconveniencing people while they go about their days?
For me and many it seems file this under hard to believe! It begs me to wonder.... 1. Won't theft of packages run rampant or Amazon only will deploy drones to customers currently home? 2. Wouldn't the drones be subject to be shot or brought down? 3. Will this only fly in good weather? 4. The sky is going to be littered with these things flying around? 5. Will there be a service where you can rent a drone to spy on yo…
If you recast these questions according to how deliveries work right now, I think you see that we already have all those problems and we manage to live with them: 1. Won't theft run rampant if UPS drops off your package at your door when you're not home? 2. Don't drivers of cars and trucks risk getting shot or stopped? 3. Will cars and trucks travel only in good weather? 4. The highways are going to be littered with…
This is terrifying. If they successfully lobby to legalize commercial drones in low-flying airspace, the peaceful sky will be polluted with flying robots (we've destroyed the terrestrial environment already, seriously don't need to destroy the sky too), businesses would have access to terrifying surveillance, criminals/terrorists could remotely break into drones or fly their own disguised to look like commercial ones…
Regarding your other concerns, there was an interesting episode of Freakonomics with Clay Shirky about the Internet, and how it gets regulated (or doesn't) by the fears of what it could do. A relevant exchange with the host starts here [1] at 20:08. The audio transcript is also available and Ctrl-F to "Let me ask you this kind of more." Shirky says:
"... there’s a large class of problems that you don’t solve until you have them. Right? You hear all of the ethicists saying oh the technology is outrunning ethics, to which the pragmatist answer is that’s exactly what we want. If you and I were to sit down right now and say well let’s draw up regulations for time travel and telekinesis we would, it’s a ridiculous question."
[1] http://freakonomics.com/2013/11/14/who-runs-the-internet-a-n...
This is terrifying. If they successfully lobby to legalize commercial drones in low-flying airspace, the peaceful sky will be polluted with flying robots (we've destroyed the terrestrial environment already, seriously don't need to destroy the sky too), businesses would have access to terrifying surveillance, criminals/terrorists could remotely break into drones or fly their own disguised to look like commercial ones…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you recast these questions according to how deliveries work right now, I think you see that we already have all those problems and we manage to live with them: 1. Won't theft run rampant if UPS drops off your package at your door when you're not home? 2. Don't drivers of cars and trucks risk getting shot or stopped? 3. Will cars and trucks travel only in good weather? 4. The highways are going to be littered with…
Also, it should be mentioned that the answer to those questions is that thousands of packages get stolen and thousands of people get killed every year in the current system, yet we still apparently find it acceptable. I find it hard to imagine this drone delivery paradigm being worse.