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First Victim of Amazon Drones: The Credibility of CBS and 60 Minutes

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Re: First Victim of Amazon Drones: The Credibility of CBS and 60 Minutes

#71

Post by IBM »

pflats wrote: post #25
tptacek wrote: post #8

It seems disingenuous for this blog to suggest that MacKenzie Bezos's negative review of the Bezos book was part of the same orchestrated spin campaign as the drone story. That review didn't simply object to the tone or the message of the book, but also pointed out specific factual errors the book made, errors that were later tacitly acknowledged by the author.

I agree. I'm totally on board that there was some serious negotiation by Amazon (Prime) to get the piece on Amazon Prime Air to air the eve of "Cyber Monday" so you'd see as much Amazon Prime as possible. I'd believe that it's intentionally out there to put quiet pressure on the FAA to lighten its regulations. I could even see it being run to distract from the Mother Jones-esque pieces about how terrible it is to be…

But it's not just the book (which by the way is getting excellent reviews from people other than Jeff Bezos' wife). It's about the worker strike in Germany and the other negative news about Amazon. They are following the Google playbook of creating goodwill and good PR through these types of "innovations" that are destined to remain as vaporware or never really considered by the company to be a real business for them to get into. Companies like Google and Amazon need it terribly because their businesses on their own aren't going to create the type of goodwill that releasing a product like the iPhone and iPad does for Apple.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-12-02/amazons-dron...

Re: First Victim of Amazon Drones: The Credibility of CBS and 60 Minutes

#72

Post by pbhjpbhj »

Zaephyr wrote: post #34

If Prime Air happens, I predict a boom in the illicit 'package intercept' business. Knock a drone down, "win" a prize is going to appeal to percentage of the population.

Presumably the drone will be quite valuable too. But then the current delivery trucks are valuable as well.

Re: First Victim of Amazon Drones: The Credibility of CBS and 60 Minutes

#73

Post by Crito »

001sky wrote: post #65
wavefunction wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about "ruthless tyrant?" I'm making a point to shop locally now. I've already seen what supporting Walmart has done to our country.

I've already seen what supporting Walmart has done to our country Have you ever shopped there? Or do you just repeat what you read all the time? Wall mart typically only exists in rural poor areas, and I doubt a drive-by HN commenter has any sense of proportion on the real issues at play. Wall-mart migh mean more competition for mom & pop stores, but they also bring reliable and affordable access to otherwise unaffor…

To add to this: I would hate to be a 3rd shift worker and have to rely on 9am-5pm mom and pop stores for all of my purchasing needs.

Hell, just considering regular office workers, where are you going to go to pick up new diapers in the middle of the night when your kid wakes you up screaming, following a logistics failure? Without Walmarts, the only realistic option for late-night shopping is the local 7-11.

Re: First Victim of Amazon Drones: The Credibility of CBS and 60 Minutes

#74

Post by alexeisadeski3 »

swalsh wrote: post #35

People say that there's usually about a 10 year lag before tech from the military enters civilian use. Since drones showed up roughly 2003, it stands to reason that 2013 is when we should first starting seeing the tech become civilian viable. In fact that seems to be true, there's a whole lot of DIY material out there, and that's from people who don't have real world experience. I wouldn't be surprised if as military…

It's been used since 1995.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Atomics_MQ-1_Predator

Re: First Victim of Amazon Drones: The Credibility of CBS and 60 Minutes

#75

Post by bandushrew »

grellas wrote: post #69

I am not a technology expert and I am not a marketing expert but, as a consumer, I have moved gradually over the years from using Amazon primarily for online book-buying to using it extensively for all kinds of retail buying needs. The Prime service has been central to that experience because human psychology appears to be perverse and something so small as "free" 2-day shipping, though not really free, seems to have…

"Whatever else this is, it cannot be mere vaporware. "

I am unclear on why not, exactly? 4-5 years before it appears, with the obvious possibility that it never does for regulatory reasons, technology reasons....

At this point I wouldn't call it vaporware, its not that far along.

It is still a fantasy. A nice fantasy. I loved the idea. but, for now, just a fantasy.

Check back in 4-5 years (or 5-10 years?) when something has actually been delivered to the market, and lets have a glass of whiskey and be amazed at the futuristic technology.

Re: First Victim of Amazon Drones: The Credibility of CBS and 60 Minutes

#76

Post by jds375 »

ljd wrote: post #6

It seems obvious to me that Bezos took this one public so early to garner public support so that the FAA can't just sit on it forever. All of Amazon's other initiatives didn't need some federal regulator to OK it before they could start selling it. I think this is an effective solution to getting a notoriously slow agency to move on an item. No one wants to be seen as stopping innovation, not even the FAA.

Definitely my thoughts. This article takes a further look at why he announced it so early: http://gigaom.com/2013/12/02/so-why-did-jeff-bezos-pre-annou...

Re: First Victim of Amazon Drones: The Credibility of CBS and 60 Minutes

#77

Post by Crito »

alexeisadeski3 wrote: post #74
swalsh wrote: post #35

People say that there's usually about a 10 year lag before tech from the military enters civilian use. Since drones showed up roughly 2003, it stands to reason that 2013 is when we should first starting seeing the tech become civilian viable. In fact that seems to be true, there's a whole lot of DIY material out there, and that's from people who don't have real world experience. I wouldn't be surprised if as military…

It's been used since 1995. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Atomics_MQ-1_Predator

From that page, it seems like they didn't start sticking missiles on them until 2001, but stayed a bit hush about that for a while later. That's probably where the idea that drones in warfare is a more recent innovation comes from.

Re: First Victim of Amazon Drones: The Credibility of CBS and 60 Minutes

#78

Post by TylerE »

ytNumbers wrote: post #59
criley2 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, but who are you? Who are you to stand up and call Amazon's idea unviable? Why is their idea unviable? Because they have no proof? Well you certainly proved how unviable the idea is with your lack of proof. Quite frankly, when it comes to Bezos vs "ye", I have to say that the billionaire owner of one of the most successful stores in our world is SLIGHTLY more credible than "ye", random commenter who has no doma…

It's a simple question of weight ratios! A five ounce bird could not carry a one pound coconut.

Comparatively inexpensive (<$500) consumer quadcopters already have 100% payload fractions (e.g. 1lb of payload per lb of vehicle weight), so 1.5:1 isn't such a jump from there.
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