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Amazon Prime Air

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Re: Amazon Prime Air

#391

Post by pavs »

diminish wrote: post #333
goronbjorn wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What merit is there in rooting for failure for failure's sake? You must be new to Hacker News…

The truth is, drone delivery was discussed already here on HN. A lot of the details were already envisioned and suggested. A lot of the commenters on this thread think it's a new idea or its's new here on HN. This is a good PR move for Amazon(edit: equal to Google's self driving car in PR power). It's likely they got inspired by some of the HN discussions. I hope they don't invent silly patents around it, such as "on…

You give HN and its small eco-chamber way too much credit.

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#392

Post by cookiecaper »

smtddr wrote: post #15
[deleted] wrote: post #11

[deleted]

>>I had to seriously check to see it wasn't April 1st. It isn't. Honestly; I'm still not sure if this is a joke or not. This totally fits the kind of stuff Google likes to do on April 1st. If this became real, I'd go out of my way to order things just to see that show up at my door. And I'm sure it won't be long until people plan on catching the device when it shows up. Even I probably couldn't resist the temptation…

They'll probably include a smoke beacon/flare of some type, ostensibly to make crash sites more visible, but probably most utilized as a deterrent to would-be trappers who don't want their house to be filled with obnoxious sensory effects like smoke, odor, or alarm. Not to mention, assuming their navigation systems remain functional, it shouldn't be too hard for the drone's owner to locate and reclaim their property.

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#393

Post by esusatyo »

sanderjd wrote: post #383
hnriot wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dropbox is for people that can't use rsync+git. For the unix-competent, it's not particularly difficult and we managed for many years with the previous tools, rsync+svn or even rsync+cvs

Yeah I really miss the good old days when I could take some pictures and all I had to do to send them to my mom was provision a server with a static IP address I could send her along with some links to rsync tutorials. Can't believe Dropbox had to come around and make everything so much harder...

I'm not sure which one is sarcasm anymore.

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#394

Post by gtremper »

sillysaurus2 wrote: post #62

A lot of people live in apartments. I assume they'll be excluded from this. Also related: http://tacocopter.com/

At least in my apartment, this would almost be easier than a traditional delivery since they can just leave it on the roof. I think a lot of buildings have roof access, which would be a great/secure spot to leave your packages.

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#395

Post by meritt »

jmduke wrote: 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…

Kills a dog!? I don't know what sort of half-ass dogs these people have but I'd be vastly more worried about my dog fucking up one of these drones and being held responsible for replacement costs.

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#396

Post by shimon_e »

We already have this in China. The SF Express has been testing these for years. Just last year we got the drop off boxes that amazon has been installing in 7-11s installed into our building. It's used for all package deliveries not just amazon.

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#397

Post by JoeAltmaier »

7Figures2Commas wrote: post #300
ruswick wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. So far, I've seen nothing but specious fear-mongering and nonsensical "what-if" arguments against this thing. I can understand why people doubt the feasibility of drone delivery, especially given the legal impediments to adoption. Frankly, I doubt that this type of service will be practical within four years. What I can't understand is why people openly reject the idea of drones. I don't see how Prime Air is…

> I don't see how Prime Air is any less safe or efficient than sending thousands of five-ton metal boxes barreling down residential streets. Here's the difference: there's a person directly controlling that five-ton metal box. Even if you assume that a) the person behind the wheel of a delivery truck is arguably more fallible than a drone following a flight plan and b) a company operating a drone will have the same p…

Suburban residential is very low-population-density, a few people per square mile, less during working hours. It wouldn't be hard to put a box next to your driveway where a copter could drop a package, and never get within a hundred feet of anybody.

The real population density issue is downtown, during working hours. Even then folks are on the sidewalk or indoors. There's nobody on the roof for instance. Copters could drop a package into a chute, again without getting close to anybody.

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#398

Post by jeffgreco »

aeturnum wrote: post #174
RuggeroAltair wrote: post #120

I think that a lot of comments here are missing a crucial point: in the next few years unmanned vehicles are going to play a major role in most of the transportation landscape, whereas this is for people or objects. Amazon here is trying to play the same role that Google has been playing for a long time with their self driving cars. They are setting a standard and pushing for regulations and laws. It is not that diff…

I disagree that they're making the same play as Google. Google has never claimed they're going to make a self-driving car, or offer it as a service. As far as I can tell with a few minutes of googling, they don't even have a home page for the project. It's a research project and a tool to "push" the law in the direction Google wants. Amazon, on the other hand, is 100% offering a product. It has a name, and they indic…

The recent New Yorker piece on Google's driverless cars makes it very clear that Google's intention from day one was to bring this to market as a product, even if it requires partnering with another company: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/11/25/131125fa_fact_...

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#399

Post by RaphiePS »

lclarkmichalek wrote: post #369
RaphiePS wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What prevents a company from offering a time-limited preview of an ebook?

There's still a fairly large difference between a time limited preview of an ebook and a time limited preview of a book.

What differences, would you say? Of course an ebook is a little less readable, but other than that, I can't think of any major differences.

Re: Amazon Prime Air

#400

Post by acchow »

farnsworth wrote: post #82
sillysaurus2 wrote: post #62

A lot of people live in apartments. I assume they'll be excluded from this. Also related: http://tacocopter.com/

It would be great if it would drop packages on my balcony. Then I don't have to be home but it's safe and I don't have to pick it up from the leasing office when they open.

Safe? I'll send my drone to steal your balcony package seconds after Amazon has left.
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