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Amazon Prime Air

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251–260 of 604 posts

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#251
post #176

(Disclaimer: I work for Amazon, but not for anything related to this. This is the first time I'm learning of Prime Air.) I'm somewhat disheartened by the skepticism of a lot of comments from HN, Reddit, and Twitter. Not stuff like "I wonder how they'll handle adverse weather" (which I think is intellectually interesting) but stuff like "As soon as one of these kills a dog it's done for". What merit is there in rootin…

How does skepticism equal rooting for failure?

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#252
post #152

This concept and forward thinking is of the type I make a conscious effort to protect from skepticism and naysayers. Aside from any obvious or glaring safety issues, ideas like this one, that teeter on the reality-joke line, are the exact ones that bring about true disruption. And that's why I encourage everyone around me to keep an open and forgiving mind, like you would with a child. Will Amazon Prime Air work? I d…

What if I give you chance to bet on the success of this technology, what terms would be acceptable for you?

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#253
Pretty neat concept. But if the goal is to deliver within 30 minutes, I wonder why does amazon need a drone? Domino's certainly dint need a drone to deliver pizza's. Given the cost of research and manufacturing of the drone, I bet this would be just a fancy R&D project. Plus dont forget the lack of accuracy the drone would have, there has to be a manual interception thus questioning the original concept itself. Musk is upto hyperloop, Bezos is upto drones; I think the former one is far more realistic and needed.

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#254
post #152

This concept and forward thinking is of the type I make a conscious effort to protect from skepticism and naysayers. Aside from any obvious or glaring safety issues, ideas like this one, that teeter on the reality-joke line, are the exact ones that bring about true disruption. And that's why I encourage everyone around me to keep an open and forgiving mind, like you would with a child. Will Amazon Prime Air work? I d…

I hope it works too - it seems so cool.

But I am not sure this is the big problem in this space.

Current delivery time = 1 day for last mile + >1 day for warehouse -> local area

This method reduces the last mile delivery time down to 30 mins but it is not clear how the second part would be optimized down. At least, without losing the value proposition of Amazon - giant centralized warehouses instead of local retail outlets.

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#255
post #176

(Disclaimer: I work for Amazon, but not for anything related to this. This is the first time I'm learning of Prime Air.) I'm somewhat disheartened by the skepticism of a lot of comments from HN, Reddit, and Twitter. Not stuff like "I wonder how they'll handle adverse weather" (which I think is intellectually interesting) but stuff like "As soon as one of these kills a dog it's done for". What merit is there in rootin…

This is not a good idea.

http://nypost.com/2013/09/05/man-decapitated-by-remote-contr...

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#256
post #51

I have two remarks or questions. The person who receives the package doesn't have to (or cannot) sign for it apparently. How difficult is it to shoot down such a drone to get the loot, if you will. Might become a sport for some folks.

Why do you believe it would be any different from robbing the same people who make the deliveries today?

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#257
post #155
post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, you know, Bezos is a pretty smart guy. So maybe he knows something about this technology that the rest of us don't. Maybe he has an upper hand over the current state-of-the-art.

Or maybe he's just orchestrating a little extra PR for Amazon on 60 minutes?

I have no particular love for Bezos - last I heard, Amazon sucks as a workplace - but this seems unlikely. There are better ways to drive PR than reveal one of your company's secret projects to the public.

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, thanks for the research. I guess I shouldn't be too shocked, but it is a bit surprising (we have an enormous land mass).

Yeah, we have a lot of land, but you wouldn't want to live there...

I'm glad you don't. :).

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#259
My main concern is environmental impact. I'd be interested in an analysis of the effects of producing these drones + environmental cost of powering them + environmental cost of producing those yellow boxes vs. cost of delivery truck

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#260
post #176

(Disclaimer: I work for Amazon, but not for anything related to this. This is the first time I'm learning of Prime Air.) I'm somewhat disheartened by the skepticism of a lot of comments from HN, Reddit, and Twitter. Not stuff like "I wonder how they'll handle adverse weather" (which I think is intellectually interesting) but stuff like "As soon as one of these kills a dog it's done for". What merit is there in rootin…

Fast consumer good delivery is pretty far from what I consider the best science fiction can offer.
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