Amazon has made its first drone delivery to an actual customer • Hacker News Board

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

#111

Post by chris_7 » Wed, Dec 14, 2016, 6:24 PM UTC

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.

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

#112

Post by toby » Wed, Dec 14, 2016, 6:27 PM UTC

kbenson wrote: post #103

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.

Any youth who can hit a small object 400ft away moving 50mph has far more lucrative options than drone theft.

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

#113

Post by losteverything » Wed, Dec 14, 2016, 6:27 PM UTC

akeck wrote: post #79

Are there things these drones can't deliver, because only USPS can legally deliver that class of item?

First class letters are exclusive to Usps

Safety angle. Every item going on domestic aircraft is scanned for bombs etc.. Safety is a Usps priority. After Unabomber where all mail from west coast went via truck till he was caught and 911 Usps is insane about nothing blowing up an aircraft with postal stuff in its manifest.

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

#114

Post by joering2 » Wed, Dec 14, 2016, 6:29 PM UTC

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'm with you, but imagine all those horse-lovers in the time of motorization boom where cars used to be much nosier than today.

Eventually sooner or later you will have state/gov/some department to regulate how much noise those can make.

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

#115

Post by JoshuaRedmond » Wed, Dec 14, 2016, 6:30 PM UTC

A lot of the valid issues people have with this concept is about the cost of flying a drone half-way across a city to deliver a single item, but I think that's just the way Amazon are pitching it at the moment. I think it's much more likely that they'll have a fleet of self driving vans with a few of these in the back - it pulls up to the end of your road/block/village and lets them loose for a few deliveries before moving onto the next place. Not quite as fast as the 13 minutes they're quoting, but much more feasible and potentially much faster than a bloke in a van.

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

#116

Post by detaro » Wed, Dec 14, 2016, 6:30 PM UTC

lettergram wrote: post #82

gamegoblin wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the video, they fly ~400ft up. Can anyone with more quadcopter experience describe how noisy that is? I know they are loud when they are nearby, but 400ft is far.

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?

Aviation law likely trumps that, especially for explicitly permitted (commercial license) operations. And in most countries "dangerous interference with aircraft" or something similar has pretty harsh penalties attached.

I think there already have been a few example cases, so there should be info at least for the US.

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

#117

Post by mxuribe » Wed, Dec 14, 2016, 6:33 PM UTC

jonknee wrote: post #62

smlacy wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cost of specialized drone wherehouse in remote England: $1.2mm Cost of 3+yrs of R&D of drone fleet: $436mm Cost of delivering first package: priceless I'm not sure how this is ever going to compare with a truck and driver, especially when the truck will be self-driving in less than a decade.

How's that self driving truck going to get the package to the door?

Or...better yet, there would be a self-driving truck/flat-bed which drives close to a certain city-center area, and has on its bed a mini-fleet of drones, these drones will lift-off from the truck instead of the fulfillment hub...these smaller drones would deliver it to the front door. Alternatively, the self-driving truck could have a cartoon-like robotic arm that extends to the customer's front door; ringing the doorbell automatically and dropping the package on the doormat. ;-)

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

#118

Post by kbenson » Wed, Dec 14, 2016, 6:34 PM UTC

toby wrote: post #112

kbenson wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Any youth who can hit a small object 400ft away moving 50mph has far more lucrative options than drone theft.

It has to come down to deliver. Even if doing roof deliveries, if they are on a roof within a building or two, they won't be that far away from the drone.

Plenty of young people put good skills to use in stupid ways until they get older (and some never hit "until"). Sometimes it's how they develop those skills in the first place.

The big reason why I think this is likely is the same as why I think it's more likely with autonomous car package delivery. An employee is a wildcard in the equation, they may care above all reason about the crime, and that can be the difference between easy money and going to jail.

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

#119

Post by justinv » Wed, Dec 14, 2016, 6:35 PM UTC

bad_user wrote: post #104

FroshKiller wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ;-)

With that quick of a click to delivery, do you really think you'll have the same car traffic? The amount of times you'd need to drive to get anything would dramatically decrease.

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

#120

Post by Diederich » Wed, Dec 14, 2016, 6:36 PM UTC

gamegoblin wrote: post #38

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?

According to the video, they fly ~400ft up. Can anyone with more quadcopter experience describe how noisy that is? I know they are loud when they are nearby, but 400ft is far.

The popular Phantom 2 became close to inaudible and invisible past 200 feet.