April fools was months ago.
Amazon Prime Air
431–440 of 604 posts
Re: Amazon Prime Air
#432Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a common but incorrect assumption to think that replacing repetitive human tasks with machines leads to wide-scale unemployment. Of course the delivery person who is replaced by drones is out of a job initially, but this doesn't doom everyone to unemployment. Higher productivity through mechanisation leads to lower prices, which means more cash available for other purchases, which leads to jobs growth in other a…
Higher productivity through mechanisation also leads to businesses being far more capital-intensive and less reliant on humans, which means a large proportion of the money coming in from those lower prices goes to members of the capital owning class - who, in general, don't spend nearly as much of it - which, in turn, means that spending power amongst the people who do actually spend will decrease faster than prices.
Higher adoption of mechanisation leads to better availablity and lower prices for the machines, though.
I might be wrong, but think I see a trend where the barriers of entry for many businesses are becoming lower and lower. For example: 3d printers, UAV drones, computers, sewing machines, craft beer equipment. They are all easily obtainable by a private person without outside money.
Also, while some equipment is still too expensive for a layman, a huge amount of manufacturing processes are now offered as a service. Better automation makes it viable to produce small batches of custom products. It is because of this mechanisation trend that I'm now able to send a 3d file to some company in UK and get a few hundred custom injection moulded parts delivered by mail.
Re: Amazon Prime Air
#433When I want to return something will a drone come by and pick up the return? because that has A LOT of value. Imagine being able to order something on amazon just to 'try it out', you get an hour to make sure x part works, drone hangs around, and if it doesn't you drop it back in the tupperware and the drone flies it back to the fulfillment center and your card is never even charged
I'm surprised I haven't seen more of this mentioned - especially for market place sellers; just sold an item? there's a drone on it's way to collect it!
This will probably end up changing the inter-city courier / logistics greatly.
Re: Amazon Prime Air
#434If it works as it does, this would be a great way to hoard those small boxes that come along with the package, and later resell them :D
Re: Amazon Prime Air
#435Late to the discussion, but I'm surprised no one is discussing the non-technical implications of drones. Even if safety/security/etc can be guaranteed 100%, personally I wouldn't want my view of the sky to be littered by drones.
Re: Amazon Prime Air
#436Brick-and-mortar stores are doomed. I can only see a few types of products remaining in brick-and-mortars: Clothes that you want to try for size, fruits and vegetables that you want to sample, and restaurants... any others?
bookstores, where one can browse more than the cover and a few pages
Wouldn't this be covered by restaurants? Just places where people gather to relax, eat, drink, read, chat quietly.
Re: Amazon Prime Air
#437Expect deliveries by driverless cars before deliveries by drones
I think a drone is probably more realistic in the short term. A self-driving car still has to get the package from the street to your porch, and while I'm sure someone's working on a little robotic deliveryman, the drone combines both transit and delivery in one package.
Re: Amazon Prime Air
#438Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think that rain, snow, or modest winds should be problematic for any properly equipped drone.
I've flown gas and electric helicopters and airplanes as a hobby over the years. These small aircraft are very susceptible to bad weather. They're already going to be carrying a significant load with an attached package. They won't be able to handle a great deal of weather adversity.
Have you flown computer-controlled multirotors? There's a big difference between fixed wing aircraft or helicopters and computer-controlled multirotors. These things are highly sophisticated and capable of making thousands of adjustments to the speeds of their rotors every second.
Re: Amazon Prime Air
#439I can imagine these will become a nuisance.
i have my own hobby UAV's and the more i see about prime air the more i think its a joke.
Re: Amazon Prime Air
#440(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…
Textbook drone delivery: http://pandodaily.com/2013/10/14/zookal-starts-world-first-d...
Cake drone delivery: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/1020621...
Pizza drone delivery: http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/dominos-tests-delivery-pizza-r...
Parcel delivery drones: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57601531-76/drones-in-chin...
Beer delivery drones: http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/branding/1561256/...
Taco delivery drones: http://tacocopter.com/
Sushi delivery drones: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=y9RKX...
General delivery drones: http://matternet.us/our-vision/ http://www.economist.com/news/technology-quarterly/21567193-...
I guess what I'm saying is this has the feeling of a PR stunt.