41–48 of 48 posts
If delivery-by-automated-drone ever actually becomes a serious service, might it be a good idea to start considering "building/structure electronic tagging"? That way, drones don't have to rely solely on GPS, or (I'm guessing) OCR of addresses and such. Obviously, with "guided" delivery, which is what we're going to have for now, this is less of a problem, but the ideal would be to have them be fully automated end-to…
Does anyone know of a good video or presentation that both describes and visually shows us how this will work in practice? I've seen the earlier news clips showing the drone delivering a package to the back porch of a house, which got a simple shrug out of me, but how's this envisioned at scale? Do I look out my second story window and see a drone pass by every 10 minutes? Or is there initial use cases outside of res…
FAR 91.119 in part says: "no person may operate an aircraft below...an altitude allowing, if a power unit fails, an emergency landing without undue hazard to persons or property on the surface."
There are numerous regulations that should apply to drones, just as there are ones that shouldn't, and ones yet to be written unique to drones. But has Amazon provided any input on the existing regulatory paradigm? I haven't heard anything but whining.
I don't see how, or why, an autonomous aircraft should be exempt from the regulation cited above. It's the same thing we expect of other aircraft. We're talking about ~50lb (plus or minus, what, 40lb?), at up to 400' above the ground, at up to 100mph. As a pilot of both single and multi-engine airplanes, I'm very appropriately expected to be at an altitude and location that in the event of a power plant failure I can prevent on-ground injuries. We can't just let companies throw up their hands and say "yeah, it's a problem we're working on, but we must not have deliveries impeded in the meantime!"
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We shouldn't be impeding progress to save jobs. I believe an ultimate goal should be to reach the point where people don't need jobs.
OK. But what's your proposal for how they get food, clothing, living space? The labor portion of food, clothing, shelter being automated only eliminated a part of their cost. They still have a cost, so if people don't have jobs, how do they continue to acquire the things they need to live?
I have mixed feelings about the rapid pace that technology is replacing human jobs. As a consumer I couldn't be happier about getting things delivered faster and higher quality experiences with sub 1 hour delivery. Across the board technology companies are replacing humans and consolidating services. My concern comes when I think about the accelerating rate that technology is replacing human jobs faster than humans c…
Robotization and automation will leave tens of millions of people in the US without jobs. There's just no way around it. This is happening as we speak. The next 30 years will be absolutely nuts. That's why some form of socialism will become inevitable. We will absolutely have to provide millions of people with food, shelter and basic medicine. Or face famine and revolts.
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Quadcopter Drones are just not viable for delivery with current battery technology. Maximum lift is a couple of pounds for 15-20 minutes of flight. Wide use of overhead power lines in cities makes drone delivery unsafe in cities. Rural areas could make sense, lots of open space for landing, sparse population and long drives for drivers,straightforward navigation and obstacle avoidance. But that's not something Quadco…
Why do we need overhead power lines again? Distribute the generation of electricity (solar, fuel cell, wind) and connect it all via underground wiring.
I can see neighborhoods having these things, to attack overflying drones that have no purpose being near the neighborhood. Parks departments taking out drones from "no drones" parks. With all this type of automation, compliance will also have to be automated. It's impractical to call the cops and say "I've got a drone buzzing around the neighborhood".
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do we need overhead power lines again? Distribute the generation of electricity (solar, fuel cell, wind) and connect it all via underground wiring.
Underground is harder, you have to dig up land every time you want to fix or replace something, this can be mitigated but it still isn't that great. More importantly in urban areas digging up land is really hard (sidewalks, roads, residences, buildings, water pipes, sewage systems...), not to mention the politics!
Stringing taut wires is also hard and they are more susceptible to damage which require constant fixing (see Connecticut ~4 years ago).