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

Post by baddox » Tue, Dec 03, 2013, 3:51 AM UTC

bandushrew wrote: post #75

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 someth…

Post by Bulkington » Tue, Dec 03, 2013, 4:03 AM UTC

Post by Crito » Tue, Dec 03, 2013, 4:19 AM UTC

kgen wrote: post #145

downandout wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Organising something like this in a controlled area like a campus must be a few orders of magnitude simpler than organising something like this across the US. Not necessarily. When a new address comes up, a human operator might takes a look at a satellite image of the address and give the drone an appropriate location to land on the property. That data would then be stored. 15 seconds with a human, one time only, i…

It wouldn't even need a human operator from Amazon, I would gladly put a marker on a map to show the drone exactly where to drop it if it prompted me upon adding a new address/checkout.

Post by durrrrrrr » Tue, Dec 03, 2013, 5:05 AM UTC

foobarian wrote: post #153

durrrrrrr wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If everyone has to go to a certain place to get these items, we could invent a revolutionary new idea. The shop.

You joke, but why not? Rent a small shop and put a landing pad on the roof, which then feeds a vending machine as the storefront. That also solves the authentication problem since it's easy to require a credit card swipe or a smartphone ping to dispense the package.

Post by jacalata » Tue, Dec 03, 2013, 5:46 AM UTC

TrevorJ wrote: post #104

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.

This is a big part of it. Also, AMZ knows full well that they are a 900 pound gorilla. Going public with this increases the chances that the problem will be worked on by other companies as well. I see it as a similar move to what James Cameron did for 3D production in the years before he made Avatar. He was very smart about getting the industry to move in that direction so that when the time came, the tech was tested…