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Two Amazon delivery drones crash into crane in commercial area of Tolleson, AZ

abc15.com

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Re: Two Amazon delivery drones crash into crane in commercial area of Tolleson, AZ

#21

Post by jon-wood »

tamimio wrote: post #9

There were plenty of proposals back in 2021 about having highways in the sky for drone delivery operations, at least in Canada, so such incidents are avoided, as relying on technology alone isn't enough and the risk plans are only to mitigate rather than eliminate the risks. That being said, drone delivery will not really become a thing unless the endurance issue is resolved, like a new breakthrough battery technolog…

I'm not sure they need endurance, if they're cheap enough companies can just buy a fleet n times larger than the number they need in the air at any given moment and have the others charging at base. Or more likely buy some extra batteries and have someone employed to swap them out when they're getting low.

Re: Two Amazon delivery drones crash into crane in commercial area of Tolleson, AZ

#22

Post by oofbey »

tamimio wrote: post #9

There were plenty of proposals back in 2021 about having highways in the sky for drone delivery operations, at least in Canada, so such incidents are avoided, as relying on technology alone isn't enough and the risk plans are only to mitigate rather than eliminate the risks. That being said, drone delivery will not really become a thing unless the endurance issue is resolved, like a new breakthrough battery technolog…

Why do you think there is any problem with battery endurance? I’m quite sure Amazon has run the numbers on battery life for individual flights and for the lifetime of battery packs many many times. It’s just economics. And has basically nothing to do with safety. Unless a battery fails suddenly and spectacularly, which is rare and probably isn’t what caused it to crash into a crane.

Re: Two Amazon delivery drones crash into crane in commercial area of Tolleson, AZ

#24

Post by tamimio »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #16
tamimio wrote: post #9

There were plenty of proposals back in 2021 about having highways in the sky for drone delivery operations, at least in Canada, so such incidents are avoided, as relying on technology alone isn't enough and the risk plans are only to mitigate rather than eliminate the risks. That being said, drone delivery will not really become a thing unless the endurance issue is resolved, like a new breakthrough battery technolog…

Why is 4 hours a limit?

It's not a limit, just from my personal exposure in the overall drone delivery, 3-4hrs would provide enough time with margin for any safe delivery, beyond that is definitely better but probably is too hard to achieve. Keep in mind the actual flight time will be less than that, accounting for payload weight and environment like wind and temperature. In cold weather like Canada, the batteries will consume some of their energy to heat themselves before taking off.

Re: Two Amazon delivery drones crash into crane in commercial area of Tolleson, AZ

#25

Post by dylan604 »

catlifeonmars wrote: post #10
prein wrote: post #6

I didn't even know they were using delivery drones yet. Why did they both crash, were they working in tandem carrying one payload or something?

I was thinking maybe they used the same route planning system, so their routes were identical.

If an amazon delivery drone uses the same route as a truck, what's the point of the drone? As a crow flies would be the point to be as direct as possible.

Edit: Nevermind. I'm not awake yet. this logic does not compute. please ignore

Re: Two Amazon delivery drones crash into crane in commercial area of Tolleson, AZ

#27

Post by skygazer »

dylan604 wrote: post #25
catlifeonmars wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was thinking maybe they used the same route planning system, so their routes were identical.

If an amazon delivery drone uses the same route as a truck, what's the point of the drone? As a crow flies would be the point to be as direct as possible. Edit: Nevermind. I'm not awake yet. this logic does not compute. please ignore

Without knowing anything about their routing, I think grandparent is saying they likely were on the same vector, perhaps same destination.

Re: Two Amazon delivery drones crash into crane in commercial area of Tolleson, AZ

#28

Post by dylan604 »

skygazer wrote: post #27
dylan604 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If an amazon delivery drone uses the same route as a truck, what's the point of the drone? As a crow flies would be the point to be as direct as possible. Edit: Nevermind. I'm not awake yet. this logic does not compute. please ignore

Without knowing anything about their routing, I think grandparent is saying they likely were on the same vector, perhaps same destination.

wow, your interpretation is much better than whatever went through my head. i'm going with too early in the morning. not enough coffee.

Re: Two Amazon delivery drones crash into crane in commercial area of Tolleson, AZ

#30

Post by mikeyouse »

mothballed wrote: post #17

"Crane" is a highly optimistic word for what looks like a telescoping boom lift. Edit: per below was actually a crane

Nah - at 0:35 into the video on the news page, you can see the crane they actually crashed into. There are boom lifts around, but they hit a proper crane. Pulled this link from the video but no clue how direct linking works with some of these weird sites;

https://cf.cdn.uplynk.com/ause1/slices/14f/5c3d34b8b29a45469...

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