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

#131

Post by niftich » Wed, Dec 14, 2016, 6:52 PM UTC

ekzy wrote: post #128

brenschluss wrote: post #25

I feel like this is a stunt. Drone delivery only works with customers that have private backyards - so won't work in a city, since the payload is unsecured after the drones drop it off. In a suburban/rural context, density is lower, meaning that with the limited range of drones, distribution centers won't be able to take advantage of density. Thus the range of products available at each distribution center will be mu…

> won't work in a city You could have a kind of platform coming out of your front window (not necessarily for it to land, but to receive the package). Now imagine it would be fully automated, as the drone approach, the platform comes out or open, receives the items, comes back in. The mailbox of the future. We call it the iPost, and we think you're gonna love it

A fold-down package-and-letter receipt platform is a great idea. If only names like iPad, Mailnet, Box Net weren't taken.

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

#132

Post by ProAm » Wed, Dec 14, 2016, 6:54 PM UTC

FroshKiller wrote: post #102

ProAm wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Depends on your definition of global over-population and quality of life I suppose.

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

#133

Post by baoha » Wed, Dec 14, 2016, 6:55 PM UTC

I've been very impressed with Amazon recently.

Given how many bad things people saying about the culture, especially the turnover rate of engineers there, how can they manage to keep things run smoothly and keep introducing new things with the cutting edge technologies.

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

#134

Post by stinkytaco » Wed, Dec 14, 2016, 6:55 PM UTC

justinv wrote: post #119

bad_user wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's sort of true now. No one really has to go to Target because we have Amazon Prime Pantry, but I still see that place full of cars. I don't have any numbers, but I'm willing to bet delivery commerce has increased dramatically in the last ten years, but I doubt traffic has decreased proportionally.

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

#135

Post by wnissen » Wed, Dec 14, 2016, 6:55 PM UTC

Zombieball wrote: post #51

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.

I bet someone thought the same thing when Amazon sold its first couple of books online ;)

Or the first night FedEx operated, sorting the packages on a single table in Memphis.

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

#136

Post by serge2k » Wed, Dec 14, 2016, 6:58 PM UTC

antisthenes wrote: post #109

derekp7 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 (no…

Hey, I hate lawns too but if you must have one then it should probably be kept at a reasonable length.

Of course watering it every day then cutting it in the summer (rather then just let it turn a bit brown and stop growing) is idiocy.

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

#137

Post by mikeash » Wed, Dec 14, 2016, 7:02 PM UTC

brenschluss wrote: post #25

I feel like this is a stunt. Drone delivery only works with customers that have private backyards - so won't work in a city, since the payload is unsecured after the drones drop it off. In a suburban/rural context, density is lower, meaning that with the limited range of drones, distribution centers won't be able to take advantage of density. Thus the range of products available at each distribution center will be mu…

I noticed that their first customer lives in the wilderness and the package got delivered a substantial distance from his house. I'm sure that will get better with time, but for right now it definitely seems stunt-like. I guess they have to start somewhere.

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

#138

Post by stinkytaco » Wed, Dec 14, 2016, 7:02 PM UTC

libeclipse wrote: post #125

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 guess we shouldn't have planes or cars either because they make noise. This is a massive step forward technologically for consumers. With every new technology I've noticed that there's always that croud of people that oppose it, talking nostalgically of the good old days when we didn't have phones or the internet. Just for a second can we marvel at what has been accomplished here? Deliveries aside, ordinary people…

> I guess we shouldn't have planes or cars either because they make noise.

But we've adapted our cities to accommodate this. We have zoning rules, traffic engineering, sound barriers, and so on to accommodate or redirect this noise and those solutions have been developed over the last century.

We had the same problem with cars when they were first on roads [0]. You can't expect people not to have a problem with drones until we are able to adapt our planning and design to their existence.

[0] For more on this, I recommend Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City by Peter Norton.

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

#139

Post by cmbuck » Wed, Dec 14, 2016, 7:02 PM UTC

wehadfun wrote: post #95

wehadfun wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know that more than 5 UPS trucks have been hijacked in the last 5 years so I don't know why you are asking me for such a silly comparison. I have no proof but I would guess amount of people that will [Hijack a UPS truck] < [Shoot down a drone].

@lighybyte I think UPS truck hijackers are motivated, violent criminals. A couple of dumb teenagers, armed with a potato gun would probably shoot at a drone just for the hell of it + criminals + overly protective property owners

Have you ever tried to hit a drone-sized target with a potato gun? Do you realize how challenging that is?

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

#140

Post by usefulcat » Wed, Dec 14, 2016, 7:03 PM UTC

justinv wrote: post #119

bad_user wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

For small items, maybe, not for anything too large for a drone to deliver.