Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Amazon Prime Air

amazon.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 604 posts

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#131

Post by toyg »

crusso wrote: post #113

Apart from the Scifi-ness of having drones work well in the best of conditions, the back-up infrastructure required to support bad conditions would seem to make the whole venture unrealistic. Let's say that a little drone could reliably carry a package to doorsteps 10 miles away. Let's assume that it can navigate past trees and power lines and kite strings and so forth. So Amazon builds up these service centers with…

It's just another option to add to the mix. Not everyone chooses next-day delivery, not everyone will choose 30-min delivery; the classic delivery infrastructure will likely remain in place. The service will just periodically be disabled: "due to severe weather in your area, PrimeAir is currently not available. Please check back later, or choose standard delivery."

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#132

Post by hyperbovine »

crusso wrote: post #113

Apart from the Scifi-ness of having drones work well in the best of conditions, the back-up infrastructure required to support bad conditions would seem to make the whole venture unrealistic. Let's say that a little drone could reliably carry a package to doorsteps 10 miles away. Let's assume that it can navigate past trees and power lines and kite strings and so forth. So Amazon builds up these service centers with…

One in ten Americans, and likely a much larger portion of Amazon's customer base, and probably an even larger fraction of their revenues, is in California. So even if this only worked here, it could still be a wise investment.

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#133

Post by PKop »

uptown wrote: post #111
fragsworth wrote: post #26

Brick-and-mortar stores are doomed. I can only see a few types of products remaining in brick-and-mortars: Clothes that you want to try for size, fruits and vegetables that you want to sample, and restaurants... any others?

Wouldn't it make sense for a drone to bring you a size to try on? If it's right - you keep it ... if not, you send it back via the drone in exchange for a different size?

Or send multiple at once, keep the one that fits.

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#136

Post by 27182818284 »

scoot wrote: post #124

http://www.amazon.com/primeair When will I be able to choose Prime Air as a delivery option? A: We hope the FAA's rules will be in place as early as sometime in 2015. We will be ready at that time. Sorry, but not a chance. I'm intimately familiar with the flight controller, motor and batter technology behind multi-rotors, and I can state unequivocally that this is just not ready for 'prime'-time (so-to-speak :) There…

>We hope the FAA's rules will be in place as early as sometime in 2015

Well, it is carefully crafted to say the rules will be in place, not the technology. The FAA could say Amazon needs to do X first where X is any one of the challenges you mentioned.

I'm glad they put that in, though, because otherwise the threads are always full of "The FAA will never allow this" comments. The wording gives me a reassuring feeling that Amazon knows how much hard work it will take to accomplish.

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#139

Post by ghaff »

colanderman wrote: post #122
fragsworth wrote: post #26

Brick-and-mortar stores are doomed. I can only see a few types of products remaining in brick-and-mortars: Clothes that you want to try for size, fruits and vegetables that you want to sample, and restaurants... any others?

Brick and mortars ought to pivot into the showroom business, à la Sony or Apple stores. That is practically what many have become ( cough Best buy cough ); the least they can do is charge manufacturers/distributors for display space.

That implies that they can get the manufacturers to pay them. BTW, explicit manufacturer showcasing is pretty uncommon today. You have the manufacturers' stores (Apple, Microsoft) and you have some limited showcasing in large retailers like B&H for photo. But it's pretty uncommon.

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#140

Post by gwern »

toyg wrote: post #100
brokentone wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds nice, but I assume balcony drop off theft would rise as a result

Above the 2nd floor, it would be quite hard to pull off.

I agree. His theory sounds like a reach, and rises to the height of absurdity; who could buy such a story?

...I'll stop now.

Post reply on HN