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Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer

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Re: Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer

#101

Post by FroshKiller »

John23832 wrote: post #88
FroshKiller wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're overstating the dropping thing. I've had shipments with plenty of rough deliveries and rougher trips in the truck on the way to be delivered. Being carried in the air and lightly dropped from 10 or 20 feet off the ground isn't going to hurt my Blu-Ray copy of Captain America: Civil War. I think when you guys say "cities," you're talking about some kind of nonexistent arcology of mile-high cyberpunk buildings w…

Yea, a blu-ray movie isn't hurt by a 20 foot drop. A blu-ray player is. Most packages are not made for shocks, just constant pressure (think the difference between someone punching you and someone sitting on you). Also, I'd bet that what you consider a safe range for drone operation and what a federal aviation safety official (or non-US equivalent) considers safe are two totally different animals.

My threshold for what is safe is irrelevant, and we can change laws if we want.

I can walk down to my sidewalk and have a half-ton vehicle going 45 mph drive within 20 feet of me in a moment. There is no question in my mind that that circumstance is much more dangerous than any delivery drone you care to send coming within half that distance. We live with some very generous tolerances for risk.

But to speak to the Blu-Ray player being hurt by the drop, sure, but what makes you think every possible item to be delivered would need to be accounted for in modeling a service like this? I assume there's a narrow band of items that make good candidates, and I'm not interested in hypothetical problems with delivering items that aren't good candidates in the first place.

Re: Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer

#102

Post by FroshKiller »

ProAm wrote: post #96
FroshKiller wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be clear, I don't really give a damn about the noise either way. I care about reducing the risk of loss of life in automobile accidents.

So more lives saved and less jobs to go around sounds like a wonderful future existence.

Fewer jobs, not less, and yes, that does sound wonderful to me. You think that sounds like some kind of dystopia, there being more people alive who perhaps have to look for different jobs? Versus those same people being dead and people still doing tedious work we could automate? I think that sounds more dystopian, personally.

Re: Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer

#103

Post by kbenson »

stevecalifornia wrote: post #20

Vacations are already being soiled by people flying loud drones in areas of natural beauty, now we get to have our day-to-day skies soiled by fleets of drones delivering popcorn. Am I the only one who doesn't want this specifically because of the noise nuisance?

Don't worry, I predict drone sniping will become a new favorite vandalism of the youth. For those on the more nefarious side, theft from drones will probably be common. Bring it down in your vicinity, take the payload.

Re: Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer

#104

Post by bad_user »

FroshKiller wrote: post #26
stevecalifornia wrote: post #20

Vacations are already being soiled by people flying loud drones in areas of natural beauty, now we get to have our day-to-day skies soiled by fleets of drones delivering popcorn. Am I the only one who doesn't want this specifically because of the noise nuisance?

I don't know about you being the only one, but personally, I certainly prefer the buzz if it means fewer vehicles on the roads every day.

Delivery vehicles that can be replaced by drones are what, 0.1% to 1% of all vehicles maybe? So you'll have both the same car traffic and the noise from drones ;-)

Re: Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer

#105

Post by derekp7 »

function_seven wrote: post #63
smlacy wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed on the perceived futility of these efforts. Even Amazon knows its silly: "First starting with 2 customers and the moving to DOZENS!" Woo hoo good job guys! But first can we please solve the leafblower problem? Modern american suburbia is already ruined by an almost constant 120dB buzz and pollution & smell of cheap 2-stroke engine exhaust.

My prediction within the next 10 years, a majority of jurisdictions will ban 2-stroke leaf blowers. Electric leaf blowers are a thing now. A combination of pollution control and noise control, along with a viable alternative, will gather enough support for these bans. (I’m not sure what portion of leaf blower noise is caused by the fan vs. the engine. I suspect even if the fan creates the larger component, it’s proba…

I have a plug-in electric leaf blower, and it is very loud. Enough that I'm self conscious about using it, unless there is other noise around to drown it out.

Re: Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer

#106

Post by mirekrusin »

stevecalifornia wrote: post #20

Vacations are already being soiled by people flying loud drones in areas of natural beauty, now we get to have our day-to-day skies soiled by fleets of drones delivering popcorn. Am I the only one who doesn't want this specifically because of the noise nuisance?

They sound like mosquitoes in my head, have to agree.

Re: Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer

#107

Post by kbenson »

51Cards wrote: post #49
elahd wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>so won't work in a city, since the payload is unsecured after the drones drop it off My building's roof is at least as secure as its lobby.

From everyone else in your building? What's top stop the guy in 5B going "Hey... package... thanks" I see a huge uptick in stolen packages. Heck the drones themselves would make a nice parts source flying free over the city. Just have to pick off a couple of them now and then. I think the point when this becomes in any way practical is really really far off. Interesting demo for sure but pretty sure I'll never have s…

On one hand, the pool of likely suspects is rather small, and the punishment can actually be rather big if it's USPS, since it's a federal crime. I see that mail fraud laws apply to other carriers such as UPS/Fedex, but I'm not sure if that also extends to mail theft. That said, the reason it applies is because they cross state lines, so I'm not sure if the specific case has to include that as well, which if we're talking about drone delivery, is unlikely.

Re: Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer

#108

Post by wccrawford »

jsjohnst wrote: post #89
lettergram wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, technically don't home owners own the air above their house up to several hundred feet? What if I don't want it flying over me, can I knock it down?

If you could knock a drone down at 400ft up, I'd really be impressed. Your accuracy would have to be incredible.

Plus, it's still illegal to recklessly discharge firearms.

Re: Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer

#109

Post by antisthenes »

derekp7 wrote: post #105
function_seven wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My prediction within the next 10 years, a majority of jurisdictions will ban 2-stroke leaf blowers. Electric leaf blowers are a thing now. A combination of pollution control and noise control, along with a viable alternative, will gather enough support for these bans. (I’m not sure what portion of leaf blower noise is caused by the fan vs. the engine. I suspect even if the fan creates the larger component, it’s proba…

I have a plug-in electric leaf blower, and it is very loud. Enough that I'm self conscious about using it, unless there is other noise around to drown it out.

All power tools are noisy, but the gasoline operated tools designed for mowing lawns and blowing leaves are an affront to humanity and nature, not only because of noise and smell, but because they are designed to do an incomprehensibly counterproductive task for the sake of owners misguided sense of ego and 'curb appeal'.

Cue the torrent of entitled comments explaining to me that they like their freshly cut lawns (not by them of course, but by minimum wage landscapers) and consider it their fundamental human right.

Re: Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer

#110

Post by chris_7 »

FroshKiller wrote: post #101
John23832 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea, a blu-ray movie isn't hurt by a 20 foot drop. A blu-ray player is. Most packages are not made for shocks, just constant pressure (think the difference between someone punching you and someone sitting on you). Also, I'd bet that what you consider a safe range for drone operation and what a federal aviation safety official (or non-US equivalent) considers safe are two totally different animals.

My threshold for what is safe is irrelevant, and we can change laws if we want. I can walk down to my sidewalk and have a half-ton vehicle going 45 mph drive within 20 feet of me in a moment. There is no question in my mind that that circumstance is much more dangerous than any delivery drone you care to send coming within half that distance. We live with some very generous tolerances for risk. But to speak to the Bl…

This sounds like your neighborhood needs some traffic calming. 20 is plenty.
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