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Amazon Unveils Delivery By Drone

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Re: Amazon Unveils Delivery By Drone

#101

Post by jmadsen »

I think this is fascinating, both for what the world will look like a few years down the road, as well as for all the questions that need to be answered.

A few random thoughts:

1) "Safety questions" - drones won't fly drunk, or while texting, or putting on makeup, or...you get the point. We regularly engage in what is arguably the most dangerous activity on the planet without batting an eye or thinking we should clamp down on the number of barely-trained 16-yo's doing it, so I'm not going to be moved by the safety concerns on this one. If for no other reason than drones are expensive, and lawsuits more so, so you can expect a pretty good safety record

2) "Noise/environment concerns" - I was working in the SF Bay Area when 9/11 happened; it was weird to suddenly not have planes constantly taking off from 3 different airports. For a few days.

It will be strange to have this things buzzing around the sky - for a few months. Then you'll stop looking up. I can't imaging them being worse than a leaf blower or a big diesel delivery truck.

3) "Airspace/regulations" - this part is fascinating to me. How do you avoid children's kites? Rival delivery drones? BB-guns? (I know that's what I'd be doing - a lucky shot to a rotor, and I'm the Hero Slayer of the 6th Grade). It is - literally (now that "literally" means anything you want it to, I can use it without fear) - a new frontier, with the same types of questions we're asking about Moon and Asteroid rights. I'm psyched we have these types of technical questions to deal with now.

4) "Surveillance/terrorists/et al" - whatever your concern - too late.

Start this post thinking to just think about & list my response to each major point raised elsewhere; looks like I've come out pretty keen on this whole thing. Hello, future! Isaac Asimov, you almost made it.

Re: Amazon Unveils Delivery By Drone

#102

Post by evan_ »

im3w1l wrote: post #86
evan_ wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably they'll have GPS and will phone home constantly- if someone shoots it down/hits it with a thrown ball/etc Amazon will probably send someone out to find it. If they find it mounted on someone's wall like a hunting trophy they'll call the police.

Shoot it down, take out the battery, put it in a faraday cage bag and sell it to the blackhat hardware modder. It ain't pretty but a few of those, and you can afford both food and mortage. You got to live off something, and jobs have been hard to come by since The Automatization.

Maybe there's a camera live-streaming the flight, hell; within 10 miles of the warehouse maybe there's a guy in a tower with a pair of binoculars.

Re: Amazon Unveils Delivery By Drone

#103

Post by jessedhillon »

Natsu wrote: post #100
chime wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wasn't joking. This is how software patent creation works. Before something can be made in practice, make all the algorithms you might need to implement it.

Yeah, no matter how obvious something is, someone will probably be able to find a trivial variation of it to patent. I mean, if you have a Taco Copter, clearly a Burrito Copter is nonobvious. I wonder just how trivial they'd allow something like this. I mean it's obvious enough that you can adapt existing telemetry systems and collision avoidance algorithms to this activity, but I doubt the lawyers think it obvious.

If you think it's so obvious to implement the algorithm in discussion here, feel free to publish it openly and preempt future patent claims.

Re: Amazon Unveils Delivery By Drone

#104

Post by VladRussian2 »

dsrguru wrote: post #62

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…

>FYI I'm not a luddite

yes, man, have you read about mid 19th century auto laws in England?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locomotive_Act

"The 1865 act required all road locomotives, which included automobiles, to travel at a maximum of 4 mph (6 km/h) in the country and 2 mph (3 km/h) in towns and have a crew of three travel, one of whom should carry a red flag walking 60 yards (55 m) ahead of each vehicle. "

"In addition to any concerns about the state of the roads, by the 1860s, there was concern that the widespread use of traction engines, such as road locomotives and agricultural engines, would endanger the safety of the public. It was feared that engines and their trailers might cause fatal accidents, scare horses, block narrow lanes, and disturb the locals by operating at night. "

Re: Amazon Unveils Delivery By Drone

#105

Post by chrischen »

jmadsen wrote: post #101

I think this is fascinating, both for what the world will look like a few years down the road, as well as for all the questions that need to be answered. A few random thoughts: 1) "Safety questions" - drones won't fly drunk, or while texting, or putting on makeup, or...you get the point. We regularly engage in what is arguably the most dangerous activity on the planet without batting an eye or thinking we should clam…

Drone's may not have uniquely human problems, but they will have uniquely drone problems... plus, whatever advantages gained will simply mean drones will be pushed to their limit, until new uniquely drone problems are exposed. The only difference is that at this point the uniquely drone problems are new and not as well understood.

Re: Amazon Unveils Delivery By Drone

#106

Post by jmadsen »

chrischen wrote: post #105
jmadsen wrote: post #101

I think this is fascinating, both for what the world will look like a few years down the road, as well as for all the questions that need to be answered. A few random thoughts: 1) "Safety questions" - drones won't fly drunk, or while texting, or putting on makeup, or...you get the point. We regularly engage in what is arguably the most dangerous activity on the planet without batting an eye or thinking we should clam…

Drone's may not have uniquely human problems, but they will have uniquely drone problems... plus, whatever advantages gained will simply mean drones will be pushed to their limit, until new uniquely drone problems are exposed. The only difference is that at this point the uniquely drone problems are new and not as well understood.

No, that wasn't my point - simply stating that any technology comes with its own issues, so dismissing a tech because it has issues is silly. We accept the perils of driving cars, we'll reach a point of acceptance with drones

Re: Amazon Unveils Delivery By Drone

#107

Post by Skinney »

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.

Birds would be a valid concern in the event that they crash into the drone... Drones falling from the sky is due to a pidgin damaging it's rotor would suck. Imagine being hit by a drone and a pidgin :/

Re: Amazon Unveils Delivery By Drone

#108

Post by Skinney »

sebcat wrote: post #92

1) drone failure causing damage to people or property 2) limited operational capabilities in regards to weather conditions. As someone who has flown ram air canopies in urban environments, I can tell you that 10mph winds of a building creates some interesting vortices. What's the air speed of a quad/octocopter-style drone? 3) shared airspace issues. These drones will probably fly pretty low ( Solving problems like th…

> What's the air speed of a quad/octocopter-style drone?

Well, is it an american or european swall, er, drone?

Re: Amazon Unveils Delivery By Drone

#109

Post by nyrina »

Houshalter wrote: post #20
TimCinel wrote: post #4

Just last week I was having what I thought was a fanciful conversation with a friend about exactly this. I'm amazed to see this materialise and very interested to see how the regulation process is handled.

Crazy ridiculous idea: have the copters attached to a cable or pole that it drags along the ground, or whatever is necessary so it isn't considered a flying vehicle. Or just fly it really close to the ground. Actually even just a UGV would be pretty useful.

I'll look forward to pulling that cable down and taking the contents of the packages

Re: Amazon Unveils Delivery By Drone

#110

Post by dharma1 »

we've been flying with drones with heavy payloads for a while now - http://londonhelicam.co.uk

The main thing is energy density - the batteries only allow for about 10-15 mins flight with a reasonable payload. Considering Amazon will have to do a roundtrip, this will not give them a very long range.

The second thing is safety - we never fly above people. I don't think the authorities will allow Amazon to fly over populated areas until the tech is 100% safe, which it isn't yet.

I think we're looking around the same time frame as with self driving electric cars becoming commonplace.. Many of the problems with battery life and safety are shared. Maybe 7 years?

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