Amazon Drone Deliveries....

[Julian]

We've seen a lot of posts and discussions and cool videos of helicopters on the forum. Amazon it looking into taking that to the next level with Drone Delivery...pretty cool idea:

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-25180906

 

[Detonate]

 

[Bruce]

Can we get drone delivery of t-shirts, hats, etc when we are on the water?

 

[Julian]

Sure! If someone wants to buy me one of those Optocopters...I'll be happy to! LOL

 

[Bruce]

Maybe you could get a liquor license and deliver adult beverages !

 

[Ronnie]

There are a lot of hurdles to clear other than the legal ones (U.S. laws/FAA regs. are as follows: 1. No commercial use. 2. No flying over 400' high 3. No flying within 1/4 mile of an airport). The bigger the payload the bigger the copter, the bigger the copter the higher the cost and moreover the more it weighs. I thought I read that the cargo weight limit right now is 2.5 kilos so about 5.5 lbs. If the average flight time is 30 minutes (and this is a high estimate), you only have 15 minutes of flight in any direction. Based on the top speed of my Phantom 2 which is 20ish mph, I could only go 5 miles out. There are multi-copters out that will do 70 mph but I believe it's at the cost of flight time. For discussion purposes assume that a 12 pack of beer is 5.5 lbs or less and costs $12 at the store ($1 per can/bottle). What would you pay to have this delivered to you in 30 minutes or less via a drone? FYI my wife recently joined a wine club, that's when we found out that a person over 21 (in the U.S.) needs to sign for alcohol deliveries otherwise they just don't complete the delivery. I don't know how Amazon or any service provider is going to address that. The tech will eventually catch up to the needs/desires but laws may not or will take a lot longer to do so.

 

[Bruce]

@Ronnie, I understand that the current technology and laws would not allow for a meaningful delivery service. But it is fun to joke about.

If advances in technology make the deliveries possible I wonder what the environmental impact will be?

 

[Magic]

Im wondering if I order a drone, can it be delivered by a drone? hmmm...

 

[1rjclark]

Are humans becoming obsolete?

 

[Ronnie]

I hear you Bruce but on the serious side I can't think of many things I would pay much of a premium for to have delivered immediately. Maybe meds, gas at the road side if I ever ran out (raises potential terrorist issues) or pizza in the middle of the night.

I don't know about the environment impact since noise is relatively low and they are powered by electricity but I imagine the arguments for electric cars would apply (I.e., there is a carbon foot print associated with producing the electricity these things need and dead batteries would need to be disposed of appropriately, they are lithium ion or polymer so they can be fire hazards if damaged). I can almost garauntee that there will be a tree hugger (aka environmentalist) or an army of them out there that will claim the increased radio signals is bad for people's health. The second someone blames a multi copter for distracting them and causing an accident more legislation will be in the works.

On a side note: dji, I believe, leads the industry at least where GPS assisted flight is concerned. They just released a firm ware update to its naza / GPS system or the phantom's only (right now) which among other things enforces the distance rules around airports . Actually, as set, they are a lot stricter than the rules in that the heli won't take off if its within 5 miles of an international airport or within 1/2 a mile of a local airport. If it flys into a restricted zone, accidentally or intentionally, it will land. This seems like a good idea but it is like apple's os policy, if you want the other features you have to take the new restrictive ones as well and I don't think you can go back to older firmware versions nor can you disable the restrictive features.

@Ronnie, I understand that the current technology and laws would not allow for a meaningful delivery service. But it is fun to joke about.

If advances in technology make the deliveries possible I wonder what the environmental impact will be?

 

[Britboater]

Are humans becoming obsolete?

Skynet at your service......

 

[Gym]

I agree with @Ronnie on this. In addition to the technological hurdles he mentioned, imagine one of these falling out of the sky due to any number of reasons, weather, power failure, collision with another drone, bird or power lines. It could very likely fall on people or cars on the road. I think the next logical, technological evolution would be autonomous ground based vehicles.

Look, I'm all for technology and I've spent many years in aviation, as many of us have, but I don't think just because we can drop a bomb on a target, with a ucav or drone, half a world away means we can safely deliver a package five miles away. I'll still wait for the UPS driver, like a panting dog, to deliver my mods.

 

[Evil Sports]

Skynet at your service......

Cyberdyne systems

 

[Julian]

I agree with @Ronnie on this. In addition to the technological hurdles he mentioned, imagine one of these falling out of the sky due to any number of reasons, weather, power failure, collision with another drone, bird or power lines. It could very likely fall on people or cars on the road. I think the next logical, technological evolution would be autonomous ground based vehicles.

Look, I'm all for technology and I've spent many years in aviation, as many of us have, but I don't think just because we can drop a bomb on a target, with a ucav or drone, half a world away means we can safely deliver a package five miles away. I'll still wait for the UPS driver, like a panting dog, to deliver my mods.

Google already has self driving cars....

 

[1rjclark]

Just think how some of our elders feel with the advancements we've made in the last 50 years.We've come a long way!