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

Post by jamiek88 » Fri, Oct 03, 2025, 6:51 AM UTC

gnulinux996 wrote: post #232

crazygringo wrote: post #102

To be clear, they crashed into the vertical cable hanging down from the end of the crane. Not into the structure of the crane itself. So it's not as bad as "they don't see cranes". But it absolutely raises the question of whether they can see cables , whether hanging from cranes or spanning telephone poles. And honestly, cables are really hard to see in the air. That's literally why high-voltage power lines hang thos…

> raises the question of whether they can see cables Should the drone's vision be comparable to a humans though? I feel like drones can either see or don't. If we go and try to tackle every corner case then nothing would come of it. Also, do I - as a citizen - have to bear the externalities of Amazon's beta testing? > Genuinely curious what the solution here is Walk to the store to get your package.

Post by sigmoid10 » Fri, Oct 03, 2025, 7:31 AM UTC

OJFord wrote: post #67

sigmoid10 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's unclear if this commenter has read more than just the headlines. Maybe they try to argue for the sake of controversy and outrage culture. Maybe they just don't have a brain. But seriously, the article text doesn't follow up with any speculation and highlights it is a developing story. According to the latest news on TV, someone actually was insured and is now at the hospital. The details are still unclear howeve…

The sentence I quoted is not in the headline.

Post by nakedrobot2 » Fri, Oct 03, 2025, 8:17 AM UTC

nomel wrote: post #240

JCM9 wrote: post #34

Flying in uncontrolled airspace in VMC is a “see and avoid” environment, meaning this looks like a pretty bad screw up by Amazon. The fact that two different drones crashed into the same object raises even more serious questions on the quality of Amazon’s tech and their ability to safely monitor it.

> see and avoid Wires are somewhere between hard and not possible to see, visually. The "fix" for this might be "that kinda looks like it might be construction over there, go around".

Post by riedel » Fri, Oct 03, 2025, 9:20 AM UTC

bri3d wrote: post #233

numpad0 wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Flying machines are never to be flown near cables. It's not like human pilots on a helicopter can detect and avoid the cables in the first place. Long-distance transmission wires are sometimes inspected with helicopters, so I guess there are exceptions and protocols, but outside those, flying machines just aren't supposed to fly near cables except for explicit intent to catch them. Especially across or under. You may…

Contra this assertion, drones are already frequently used around power lines, and as such, "finding hanging wires with a drone" is actually a very active field with fairly robust solutions. Not only are drones used for power line inspections (which are actually a somewhat easier variant of this problem, because the drone usually flies above or adjacent to the power lines in this scenario), but also for infrastructure…

Post by lttlrck » Fri, Oct 03, 2025, 12:26 PM UTC

fallingmeat wrote: post #165

gpm wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Never fly underneath anything? This honestly seems like the obvious approach. Even if we suppose you have perfect sensors flying underneath something still means something might be dropped on you... why risk it when you can just fly above it?

guy wires