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The 800 Pound Gorilla Amazon Tried to Kill is Google's Trojan Horse

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Re: The 800 Pound Gorilla Amazon Tried to Kill is Google's Trojan Horse

#31

Post by goostavos »

aylons wrote: post #13
nostromo wrote: post #8

If I was Amazon I'd be more worried about self-driving cars. Self-driving cars will make natural delivery vehicles. If Google partnered with local retailers to provide check-out via wallet and delivery via automated cars, it would disrupt more than just Amazon. Google has all of the nascent building blocks in place: Google Wallet, Google Shopping Express, Google Shopping, Google Maps with StreetView for routing, auto…

Ahn? I think a self-driving car would still need someone to carry the product from the car to the door, or am I missing something?

Launching mechanism of some kind. UPS style ;)

Re: The 800 Pound Gorilla Amazon Tried to Kill is Google's Trojan Horse

#33

Post by staccatomeasure »

yid wrote: post #15
aylons wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ahn? I think a self-driving car would still need someone to carry the product from the car to the door, or am I missing something?

Rumors are that Google is testing a grocery-delivery bipedal robot that can climb stairs, use the elevator, etc.

I envy the teenagers of the future. They are going to have such wonderful targets of vandalism and destruction. However, it will make sad when Google adds defense mechanisms to the robots and skynet goes live.

Re: The 800 Pound Gorilla Amazon Tried to Kill is Google's Trojan Horse

#34

Post by svachalek »

saosebastiao wrote: post #25
nostromo wrote: post #8

If I was Amazon I'd be more worried about self-driving cars. Self-driving cars will make natural delivery vehicles. If Google partnered with local retailers to provide check-out via wallet and delivery via automated cars, it would disrupt more than just Amazon. Google has all of the nascent building blocks in place: Google Wallet, Google Shopping Express, Google Shopping, Google Maps with StreetView for routing, auto…

> Self-driving cars will make natural delivery vehicles. Are you sure about that? Self-Driving cars are currently a very limited use case. They drive, but they haven't shown to be very adept at more anomalous behavior that humans can do, such as following detour signs, following traffic officer signaling at intersections, or finding parking spots in locations where they are unlikely to be towed. Furthermore, when you…

Your first paragraph is fairly easily solved with data. When self driving cars are common, there will no doubt be police databases with information about detours and parking etc. Given that, they will do a much better job than humans trying to find and read signs.

The other parts of delivery are more of a problem. But remember at one time we thought it was necessary to have humans pump gas, operate elevators, and dispense cash. Those tasks were only partially automated, but sufficiently enough that the rest of the job was dumped onto the customer.

Re: The 800 Pound Gorilla Amazon Tried to Kill is Google's Trojan Horse

#35

Post by [deleted] »

yid wrote: post #18
famousactress wrote: post #4

TL/DR: I (would have) used this new google shopping thing (once) and would have saved money, except for shipping. Amazon better be terrified. Sheesh. Not that Google's tool doesn't have merit, it might.. but we'll have to wait for someone to write an article worth reading. This is silly.

In fairness, he saved almost $3.

[deleted]

Re: The 800 Pound Gorilla Amazon Tried to Kill is Google's Trojan Horse

#36

Post by yardie »

venomsnake wrote: post #21
aylons wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ahn? I think a self-driving car would still need someone to carry the product from the car to the door, or am I missing something?

A person can get on the lawn and take it from the vehicle. You just need to separate the inside of the vehicle on easily configurable compartments.

The delivery guy that does regular drops at our office does everything from crates of server parts to flatpack envelopes. I can't imagine any sort of separation that can account for the variety of deliveries that need to be made and be small enough to fit onto city side streets.

Re: The 800 Pound Gorilla Amazon Tried to Kill is Google's Trojan Horse

#37

Post by jamesbritt »

saosebastiao wrote: post #25
nostromo wrote: post #8

If I was Amazon I'd be more worried about self-driving cars. Self-driving cars will make natural delivery vehicles. If Google partnered with local retailers to provide check-out via wallet and delivery via automated cars, it would disrupt more than just Amazon. Google has all of the nascent building blocks in place: Google Wallet, Google Shopping Express, Google Shopping, Google Maps with StreetView for routing, auto…

> Self-driving cars will make natural delivery vehicles. Are you sure about that? Self-Driving cars are currently a very limited use case. They drive, but they haven't shown to be very adept at more anomalous behavior that humans can do, such as following detour signs, following traffic officer signaling at intersections, or finding parking spots in locations where they are unlikely to be towed. Furthermore, when you…

Very good observations. I wonder, though, if self-driving can work for moving items from a warehouse to "close enough" such that some smaller local service can carry it that last mile.

Re: The 800 Pound Gorilla Amazon Tried to Kill is Google's Trojan Horse

#38

Post by _k »

nostromo wrote: post #8

If I was Amazon I'd be more worried about self-driving cars. Self-driving cars will make natural delivery vehicles. If Google partnered with local retailers to provide check-out via wallet and delivery via automated cars, it would disrupt more than just Amazon. Google has all of the nascent building blocks in place: Google Wallet, Google Shopping Express, Google Shopping, Google Maps with StreetView for routing, auto…

Trains and airplanes are self-driving-flying but we do require them to have a driver.

Re: The 800 Pound Gorilla Amazon Tried to Kill is Google's Trojan Horse

#39

Post by nodata »

saosebastiao wrote: post #27
nostromo wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I envision getting a text. "Your pizza is here. Use code 4025 to open locker #24." "You have 20 seconds to comply." ;-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzlt7IbTp6M

Forcing people to be home is bad enough, but now you are forcing them to drop everything they are doing. Not exactly an amazing customer experience.

They wouldn't need to be home. The self-driving car would drive to the customer.

Re: The 800 Pound Gorilla Amazon Tried to Kill is Google's Trojan Horse

#40

Post by svachalek »

saosebastiao wrote: post #27
nostromo wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I envision getting a text. "Your pizza is here. Use code 4025 to open locker #24." "You have 20 seconds to comply." ;-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzlt7IbTp6M

Forcing people to be home is bad enough, but now you are forcing them to drop everything they are doing. Not exactly an amazing customer experience.

True, but given a choice between an amazing customer experience and saving money, most people choose the latter. See: ATM, phone tree, commercial air travel.
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