In the future, I can imagine having drop off zones (one for every block, e.g. upgraded food/newspaper kiosks in very high density areas), where you can gather your packages if you provide the correct code/QR image. Or even pay only if and when you pick it up? I can already order groceries online and pick them up myself for a small fee, here in Austria. Using drones would just take it farther and quicker, and I would…
You mean I have to leave my building?!
How else would you retrieve a drone delivered package on the 6th floor with a balcony too small to land on?
In the future, I can imagine having drop off zones (one for every block, e.g. upgraded food/newspaper kiosks in very high density areas), where you can gather your packages if you provide the correct code/QR image. Or even pay only if and when you pick it up? I can already order groceries online and pick them up myself for a small fee, here in Austria. Using drones would just take it farther and quicker, and I would…
In the future, I can imagine having drop off zones (one for every block, e.g. upgraded food/newspaper kiosks in very high density areas), where you can gather your packages if you provide the correct code/QR image. Or even pay only if and when you pick it up? I can already order groceries online and pick them up myself for a small fee, here in Austria. Using drones would just take it farther and quicker, and I would…
Not exactly making history here. Wake me up when anyone can order from a drone, not just another PR stunt. And I see legitimate questions downvoted already. The amazon shill is real.
> And I see legitimate questions downvoted already. The amazon shill is real.
Please don't complain about downvotes or accuse other users of astroturfing or shilling — the first is explicitly against the site guidelines (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html) and the second is a notorious poison (late edit: and in the guidelines now too).
From a physical standpoint, can a drone get to your front door? I think targets are going to be inevitable. There's no way that a drone is going to be able to deliver to my front porch. It would be much easier to delivery to my deck in back. The "not driving" part is the key for me personally. I don't really like risking life and limb to buy potato chips. By chance, do you have vertigo?
No, I don't have vertigo, just a healthy aversion to the deadliest routine task most of us engage in. The longer I go without an accident, the more aware I am that for all I do to minimize my risk factors while driving, I have no control over my fellow motorists. But yeah, a drone could get to my front door. I agree with you, though, that having some way to designate the delivery area might be necessary.
I feel the exact same way about being on roads. Where I live (Texas), 3531 people died in a traffic fatality last year (including someone I knew) [0].
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…
What's wrong with a rake? And maybe also a tarp if there is some distance to move the leaves.
It takes more time than a leaf blower. Especially around shrubs and hardscape. There’s a reason professional gardeners use leaf blowers after all, even though they’re way more expensive than a rake and require more maintenance.
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?
Knock it down? Like with a gun? I would call the cops so fast if one of my neighbors were firing a gun in the air to, hur hur, hit a drone.
That is such a dangerous and irresponsible thing to propose, unless you're out in the country, on your own land, with enough of your own land around you that your bullets won't come crashing down onto the rest of us.
USP, FedEx and the USPS all leave your packages in unsecured areas. These drones would have to literally drop your packages off in a city. Those are very different actions. The logistics of even getting close enough to the ground to not obliterate your package, in an open enough area, while avoiding people and other obstacles (both stationary and moving) is a nonstarter for even small cities imo. Good luck in NYC.
On the contrary, I sell things online (and through Amazon) and it's common advice that we sellers treat packages as if they will be thrown/dropped, because during shipping they often are. More expensive products tend to have more padding since it's cheaper to add more airbags in than replace the product. And Amazon is of course incentive to not have products break all the time either, their customers wouldn't trust i…
I agree that there is some protection for drops. However, the expected drop in an Amazon warehouse, or a UPS shipping center is not a 20 foot one. I'd doubt it's even a 10 foot one. I've seen the insides of both of those buildings (my local ones). Things get shaken, stacked, and dropped. A 20 meter drop is ridiculous, and the logistics of getting a drone 10 feet off the ground in a city is still and issue imo.