Wal-Mart seeks to test drones for home delivery • Hacker News Board

Re: Wal-Mart seeks to test drones for home delivery

#41

Post by BinaryIdiot » Tue, Oct 27, 2015, 6:37 PM UTC

nsgi wrote: post #30

BinaryIdiot wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't disagree with you enough. This will be a huge game changer. Sure, it won't change things a ton for the consumer (many times do you really need that item the same day or is 1-2 days okay to wait?) but for the retail companies that adapt this is going to be HUGE. Yes drones are impractical right now but we have just begun using them (they're still incredibly new). Battery technology will improve, drones will ge…

> many times do you really need that item the same day or is 1-2 days okay to wait? How many people use Amazon Prime? Clearly a few days makes a big difference to a lot of people.

> Clearly a few days makes a big difference to a lot of people.

It certainly does hence why I mentioned 1-2 days assuming everyone was someone who does 2 day at the most :)

I'd imagine more people care about getting it in 1-2 days versus 3-5 days but I'm not sure how many care about the time difference in getting it same day. Sure people care but I feel like the bigger business opportunity is slimming down the inventory and retail presence.

Re: Wal-Mart seeks to test drones for home delivery

#42

Post by drakenot » Tue, Oct 27, 2015, 6:44 PM UTC

blktiger wrote: post #16

soylentcola wrote: post #5

I'm curious because every battery operated "drone" I've seen has a pretty limited range and flight time. Some of the higher-end multicopters built for videography can carry a decent camera for maybe a half hour but it seems like for deliveries, you'd be really limited in terms of weight carried and distance. The thing still has to get back to the warehouse even if it manages to land, drop the package, and fly back wi…

According to the article, walmart wants to test a drone delivering a package from a truck and then returning to the truck. If that is the case, then they could use an automated truck to deliver packages to the general area first. Then the drone would activate and deliver the package the last few feet to the door. Presumably, if they did something like this the drones would have their batteries charged while the truck…

I worked as a "holiday helper" for UPS during a Christmas season when I was in college. My only job was to take the package to the door for the truck driver while they queued up their next package.

I could see these drone systems working a lot like what I did at that job. Even if the driver still had to drive almost right next to the house, if they could reliably have that "last 100ft" delivery taken care of by drones it would be a big efficiency boost.

Re: Wal-Mart seeks to test drones for home delivery

#43

Post by Reedx » Tue, Oct 27, 2015, 6:49 PM UTC

georgeloring wrote: post #32

Someone1234 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. Even ignoring the total impracticality of them, you can also look at just energy issues. In order for drones to be cost effective, they need to stay in the air for minimum the full trip out and back from the home, but if you look at the location of most big warehouses (e.g. Amazon, Walmart) they're built outside of big cities for cost reasons, so now you have to fly twice as far to deliver packages onto the o…

> but if you look at the location of most big warehouses (e.g. Amazon, Walmart) they're built outside of big cities for cost reasons, so now you have to fly twice as far to deliver packages onto the opposite side of the city. 90% of all Americans live within 15 miles of a Walmart. If they were able to launch drones from their store locations it might address this concern.

Wow, I assumed that was a guesstimate, but it's the actual stat! Crazy.

http://www.statisticbrain.com/wal-mart-company-statistics/

Re: Wal-Mart seeks to test drones for home delivery

#44

Post by Splines » Tue, Oct 27, 2015, 7:07 PM UTC

aianus wrote: post #27

jahewson wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I already save the 30 minute trip to the store by ordering online. So all the drone would offer me is to save a few days shipping time (or, back when I lived in the UK, one day. Oh and supermarket delivery is common there too.), which frankly isn't something I'm going to pay much for most of the time. I only drive to the store if I don't know what I'm going to buy and I want to browse in person.

> which frankly isn't something I'm going to pay much for most of the time The drones are going to be cheaper than the UPS guy, not more expensive.

I would honestly be surprised if this was the case, at least for the end customer.

At best we'll see immediate drone delivery as an incremental surcharge or a value-add for a subscription service (Prime).

Re: Wal-Mart seeks to test drones for home delivery

#45

Post by hayksaakian » Tue, Oct 27, 2015, 10:28 PM UTC

Splines wrote: post #44

aianus wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> which frankly isn't something I'm going to pay much for most of the time The drones are going to be cheaper than the UPS guy, not more expensive.

I would honestly be surprised if this was the case, at least for the end customer. At best we'll see immediate drone delivery as an incremental surcharge or a value-add for a subscription service (Prime).

drones can only get cheaper over time.

employees need to eat in 2015, and 2016 and 2017, etc.

Re: Wal-Mart seeks to test drones for home delivery

#46

Post by pbhjpbhj » Wed, Oct 28, 2015, 10:09 AM UTC

hayksaakian wrote: post #45

Splines wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would honestly be surprised if this was the case, at least for the end customer. At best we'll see immediate drone delivery as an incremental surcharge or a value-add for a subscription service (Prime).

drones can only get cheaper over time. employees need to eat in 2015, and 2016 and 2017, etc.

So we get our new gadgets on a few hours for less cost to the company, more dollar-cost to us, and in return we have more unemployed people so pay more taxes.

I'm really not a Luddite; we need to find ways to put the tech development focus on things that benefit society as a whole.

/rant

Re: Wal-Mart seeks to test drones for home delivery

#47

Post by aianus » Wed, Oct 28, 2015, 10:47 AM UTC

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #46

hayksaakian wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

drones can only get cheaper over time. employees need to eat in 2015, and 2016 and 2017, etc.

So we get our new gadgets on a few hours for less cost to the company, more dollar-cost to us, and in return we have more unemployed people so pay more taxes. I'm really not a Luddite; we need to find ways to put the tech development focus on things that benefit society as a whole. /rant

The cost savings will get passed on to the consumer; retail is a very competitive low-margin industry.

We get our gadgets for less cost and the people that used to deliver them get paid by the government to retrain to do something else that's actually fulfilling and productive.

Win-win.