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Amazon Reveals "Prime Air", Their Plans For 30-minute Deliveries By Drone
Z80xxc! writes "Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos revealed during a CBS 60 Minutes interview that the company is working on a service called 'Prime Air' to deliver packages by autonomous octocopter drones within 30 minutes of hitting the 'buy' button. The plan still requires more testing and FAA approval, but Bezos predicts it'll be available to the public in the next 4-5 years.
With a lot of backlash against drones, and some towns even offering bounties to shoot them down, will this technology ever take off, or is this just another one of Amazon's eccentric CEO's fantastical flight ideas?"
1. This technology
2.Silk Road 2
3.?????
4. PROFIT!
Silence is a state of mime.
It seems like it would be a lot easier to steal from a drone than it would be to steal from a person delivering a package.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
This is just a free-publicity stunt, timed for Xmas to get the word "Amazon" on all the news channels.
No sig today...
It's possible Bezos really means it, but my guess is that two things are behind it:
1. Using the current drone hype to help position Amazon as exciting/technological/futuristic, rather than just a boring logistics company that owns warehouses and brown cardboard boxes. With Google working on self-driving cars, and Elon Musk proposing a hyperloop and working on a reusable rocket, Amazon might want to join the futurology game. Otherwise they risk being seen as a low-margin but very efficient (and high-volume) mass retailer, the online version of Wal-Mart.
2. Provide some leverage in negotiations with the delivery and courier companies they depend on by threatening to bypass them. Amazon may want at least a halfway credible alternative to companies like UPS/Fedex when negotiating rates, something to hang over their head as "if you piss us off enough, we're really going to do it, we're going to just deliver everything with drones".
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
At least they'll finally have a valid excuse for throwing your package on the ground.
How long till people start stealing the drones as they see one landing (by throwing a net on them for instance) and hack the firmware so they have their own drone?
This story nicely demonstrates how the modern media has no time (or desire) to think on their own.
This system is completely impractical. Anyone who has any idea on the capabilities of octocopters can immediately see that this idea is DOA.
- Range is abysmal. If you are not within walking distance of a distribution center, you are not in range of one of these. They could offer 10x better service for those within walking distance of their distribution hub by offering in-situ instant pickup if you are happy to walk to the center.
- Payload is non-existing - 0.5kg is quite a bit for an octocopter. Lets say they make a bigger "cargo" version and manage to quadruple that. 2kg. Too little for anything useful.
- Octocopters are good-weather toys. They cannot be flown in heavy winds. "Sorry, no deliveries today, it's too windy". Yeah. Right.
- The technology just isn't robust enough to be scaled up to meaningful numbers - crashes due to mechanical faults are inevitable, potentially hitting something and as a minimum causing an expensive tech toy wreck for Amazon. Often.
So this is purely a silly story to get Amazon into headlines right around "Cyber Monday" so buyers would remember that Amazon exists.
The NY Times, WashPost, BBC, Deutche Welle, Straits Times, South China Morning Post, Sydney Morning Herald and I'm only 1/2 was thru my RSS feeds. Now Starbucks, flying my morning latte through my kitchen window, that would be news!
Most things on the drone will be spendy, and well packaged. Shoot them down, pawn the goods, rinse, repeat.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Anything that's going to be "available within 4-5 years" is pretty much bullshit. A real plan would have a real date.
Mount a camera on the drone and let me watch my package flying over the landscape via the "Track my package" option.
Summation 2
Next up: package delivered by drone will sound a siren if not opened immediately.
Personally, I would like to go back to the good old days when we used owls for that.
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
will be this.
It's almost like they're building a network... in the sky...
Investors continue to give Bezos the benefit of the doubt, allowing him to reinvest Amazon's entire cash flow into the company with the expectation that "some day" Amazon will be able to flip an investment switch and suddenly become immensely profitable. Perhaps. But it seems to me Bezos just doesn't care about money and is using Amazon's money as his personal playpen.
I could see the potential benefit of using drones to facilitate express delivery of packages between depots or designated collection points. I don't see how they are practical for delivering all the way to some random recipient. At the very least someone would have to geotag a landing spot which was free from wires and other hazards - would they trust the customer to do that or would they need someone to come out? Aside from that I'm sure there are severe limits on the size and weight of the things it can deliver. Not to mention the cost of such a service.
I just ordered a 30$ USB drive and hey! free 3000$ drone!
Mostly random stuff.
Memories. Still pretty cool, even if the public hasn't clamored for it. :-)
If the story has been run on 60 Minutes, it's hardly "News for Nerds" any more. After it has already been disseminated to the general public through, why would it be newsworthy here? And yes, I know that not everybody is in the US, nor did they see 60 Minutes last night, but really, if CBS already ran this story, why is /. ?
In Skeet/Trap shooting skills. Instead of clay pigeons it'll be Amazon drones.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
1.) What types of weather will these deliveries fly in?
2.) Will Amazon be trying to hire away remote pilots from the US Air Force, or will the US Air Force be recruiting from Amazon?
3.) You thought overnight shipping was expensive.......
Things to think about.
Awk! Pieces of eight. Pieces of eight. Pieces of seven... ERROR: General Protection Fault. [Paroty Error.]
If private organizations can't use drones to help with natural disasters, such as those in Colorado, how do you suppose this will get approved to fly near local airports and various cities and towns won't outlaw the flying of drones?
Of course, there's always the question: How do you deliver to high-rise apartments and other high-density dwellings?
Awk! Pieces of eight. Pieces of eight. Pieces of seven... ERROR: General Protection Fault. [Paroty Error.]
For the uninitiated, that's marketingese for "we have no fucking clue."
I agree, though when you do the cost-benefit analysis, the danger of road-bound delivery vehicles cruising around residential neighborhoods and people driving to stores should be considered as well.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
From what I have read the drones can only deliver anywhere within a 10 mile radius of a fulfillment center. I am not anywhere near a fulfillment center so I am not sure how practical these would be. Unless they plan on building thousands of these centers all over the US.
These things would be just the job for that in some parts of the US given the number of holes you see in road signs.
A few 12bore blasts and they would be landfill.
with the millions of guns available and people not wanting Big Bro spying on them these will soon bite the dust in more ways than one.
I'd rather be riding my '63 Triumph T120.
Delivery trucks are massive beasts forced to take circuitous routes to accomplish their purpose.
These devices do indeed have the burden of being airborne, but on the other hand are much lighter weight (e.g. don't need a lot of safety features, don't have to size capacity to a max load' which might not be as close to average load, and can go direct without worrying about whether there are roads or not).
I think there are other logistical challenges that have me skeptical, but I could be convinced that overall the energy picture might not be too bad.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Hate to break it to you, but the only aircraft that have to meet the safety standards that Boeing and Airbus meet are those running published airline routes.
The news helicopter flying overhead is regulated to a lower standard. The private jet carrying some CEO across the country is regulated to a lower standard. Larry Elison flying his own personal jet is regulated to an even lower standard still, and the guy buzzing over your house in the plane he built himself is regulated to the lowest standard of all.
That said, there are standards, and the FAA has standards for drones as well. The level of rigor largely depends on:
1. How heavy the plane is (a little RC aircraft might give your kid a cut if it crashed into them, a cessna would squish them like a bug).
2. Whether the operation is recreational or commercial (flying is expensive, so not too many people are put at risk if their free airplane ride is a bit risky - but self-sustaining operations are a different story).
3. Whether a commercial operation involves an airline route (if the CEO is paying for the plane he is riding on, chances are he's going to not be cheap on the maintenance budget - when you just buy a plane ticket you're at the mercy of the megacorp maintaining the plane).
For the most part commercial operations tend to be much safer than flying, and recreational operations tend to be about as safe as riding a motorcycle - more hazardous than a car, but not outside the realm of normal activity. Planes by their very nature tend to be fairly light, so their damage potential for those not in the cabin is actually pretty low when compared to the analogous ground-based activity (cars, trucks, trains, freighters, etc).
I'm sure the FAA would consider this a commercial operation and regulate it accordingly. Right now the regulations are actually so tight that anything but experimental/developmental use is impractical (usually you have to have human operators able to take manual control, observers watching the drone, etc). I imagine that they'll only remove the leash when somebody comes up with a system that is fairly robust. Besides, a drone capable of carrying a package any distance is going to be expensive - you wouldn't just want to be losing them due to failures all the time.
I'm holding out for the Trebuchet delivery option.
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That would be perfect for delivery of anything that weighs about the same as a postage stamp.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
you need to do some searching on the internet. and maybe wake up. :) I mean that in all light warmheartedness. It's happening.
I've always said English was my second language. Had Romeo and Juliet been written in C, I might have understood it.
Yet another thing, along with self-driving cars, Google Books, and Google Glass, that Vernor Vinge's 2006 novel seems to be on track for.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
I hope that Amazon idea takes off. Its green, economically sound idea. I think we need to get over the idea that drones are bad. They can be used in bad ways, and we should create a framework that defines good uses for drones. For lack of better words, a bill of rights about drone uses.
I've always said English was my second language. Had Romeo and Juliet been written in C, I might have understood it.
We already have them. They are just expensive to run and far to dangerous to allow anyone to fly without very demanding training and certification.
We call them helicopters.
You can buy a license.
"return to sende"BOOOMMMM!
obviously, their refund policy is going to change...
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
It's be more practical to do something like this as a street vendor of food products, etc. Suppose you're in a large park area and want a hot dog. You start an app on your phone, place the order, and a vendor in the park loads the drone and the drone finds you via you're phone location (GPS enabled, and location sent in with the order). Payment is made on placement of the order via paypal/credit card. I'd get such an "Air dog."
such as weather, limited flying range, etc., the biggest problem of all is the liability resulting from someone or their pet being injured when those whirling blades hit them.
Then there's the problem of people stealing the drones to modify for fun and profit.
I'm guessing the Mexican cartels are technologically way ahead of amazon in this game.
Researcher translation: https://xkcd.com/678/
I'm sorry, but your opinion seems to be wrong.
A more environmentally friendly approach, perhaps. Hat tip to Waterstones for their response!
1. If a drone is downed, it will report it's last known GPS coords. If it's still online after crashing, it will probably live stream audio/video of what's happening to it.
2. Allow other drones out for delivery to swarm a downed drone to observe the perpetrators ad hoc until a dedicated incident drone can arrive to observe
3. Fry the electronics upon being downed so that they can't be stolen.
4. Initially ship only items that are of low cost, despite being of high value to the consumer. (i.e. hdmi cable, diapers, etc).
5. Initially only ship items which can be permanently disabled via serial number if the drone goes down. (i.e. kindle, cell phone, etc)
6. Initially have a large percentage of total drones be test drones with no shipments, so downing drones is not very profitable.
7. Have the drones fly totally unpredictable routes so that one can not anticipate their flight path.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
The stupid drone didn't knock on my door and my tablet got stolen off my porch. Then I get a knock on the door from the local PD with a complaint from my neighbor. She claims my drone flew from my front porch, flew over her backyard and was spying on her sunbathing nude. LOL, just some random thoughts
As someone in the industry, this is absolutely practical with current tech. Nothing new needs to be invented. It's just a hardware infrastructure build out, software build out, and society/FAA issue.
I'm surprised to see so many people think this is BS. Sure there are issues. But that's always the case.
Your assumptions about what the current tech can handle are false.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
This would be somewhat more interesting if the vendor were AshleyMadison.
I love how people commenting online keep taking about air piracy and how these will be shot down. Imagine how bad road piracy would be if deliveries were made via trucks on highways! People could hijack an entire truck full of packages!
FAA has a requirement that will be coming up for virtually all aircraft called ADS-B. It's basically a self-imposed tracking system that broadcasts your position in all three axes and your ground speed. It's in an unencrypted form so that any aircraft in flight can receive positions from nearby aircraft. My guess is the FAA will mandate that the drones be so equipped.
Another observation: Here in Texas where there a pockets of huge populations of Mexican free tail bats, there is an interesting thing that happens when they emerge to forage on insects. They all stream out following each other in a main column (that can actually be seen on radar) and then branch out sort of resembling a tree. It would probably make sense for package distribution to follow a similar model where the route is not a straight line but a predictable route. Outgoing drones flow along in a pre-set column and incoming drones flow along in another distinct column. Bats on radar
BTM
That was the turning point of my life--I went from negative zero to positive zero.
I for one welcome our future Sky Thieves (TM) who will pirate packages from Prime Air and use them to fuel their Zeppelin based future society.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Amazon is a terrible place to work, at least in the UK. They treat their staff appallingly. The BBC did a report as well.
Victorian working conditions are returning.
Stick Men
they use this for pizza delivery.
They said a 16 kilometre (10 mile) range. If you put a fulfillment centre in a major city, that ~16 kilometre radius circle covers roughly 800 square kilometres. In New York City, that's about 8.5 million people served, which isn't too bad.
I suspect that if they built a depot in a few large cities, they could cover a rather large number of people, particularly as battery technology improved and that radius expanded.
So, how would I 3D print a computer? Or a battery? Or a hard drive? Or a stuffed animal? Or a smartphone?
3D printers are extremely limited in their application, and will continue to be for decades to come. On the other hand, how are you going to get your 3D printing supplies delivered?
that's what it is. The idea is interesting though. I can already imagine the long list of conditions for this service if it does ever comes to life.
On the other hand, how are you going to get your 3D printing supplies delivered?
By printing a drone, and sending it to the shop?
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
Drones are a solution to getting from the truck to the door (or window landing stage). The truck stops, drones fan out to deliver packages nearby, and the drones return to the truck for a quick recharge before the next delivery. In a few years, the trucks will be self-driving, Amazon warehouses will have Kiva robots, and very few people will be necessary.
These things could easily be hijacked. Nothing like a good GPS jammer wouldn't take care of.. Illegal, yes but so is all the surveillance the government is doing to us! They make stopping them illegal. Heck figure how Iran "hijacked" one of our military drones, do the same thing..... This idea by Amazon is a REAL bad idea!
The Truth is a Virus!!!
Higher, Boeing and Airbus cannot fly below a certain altitude in your neighborhood. These will be at just the right height to really hurt someone.
You really think the FAA would make a safety allowance for commercial use of drones in densely populated areas? Right, cause that's not a lawsuit waiting to happen.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
Except these would have much closer interaction with people then any of the above. To the tune of inches (how else do you get your package from the drone). No Govt agency is going to allow you to put your commercial drone within inches of a person.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
Presumably they'll just drop them on your doorstep, just like how most people get their other parcels. Unless somebody is home all day long it isn't terribly practical to sign for them.
"Must be the terrible air currents around here, better drive it up next time."
a) No, the FAA doesn't yet have standards for UAVs
http://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/uas/uas_faq/index.cfm?print=go
I guess "standards" is pushing it a bit - they're approved on a case-by-case basis for experimental use, just like a lot of planes people fly in are.
No, safety standards aren't differentiated for "running published airline routes".
My mistake. Looks like the term is "conducts airplane operations as a commercial operator engaged in intrastate common carriage of persons or property for compensation or hire in air commerce, or as a direct air carrier" (14 CFR 119.21(a))
However, the standards certainly are different for that vs just giving somebody a ride in your plane.
if we accept that these are digital fly by wire aircraft (and they are), they will promptly become $100K creatures if they are required to meet any modern nation's standards for fly by wire aircraft.
Maybe - it remains to be seen how things are standardized. Also, building the first one will likely be expensive, but as with anything aviation-related the prices get more manageable as you scale up.
Holy cow - one pound to lock up a shopping cart? In the US those carts typically require 25 cents.
Which, coincidentally, is the largest US coin in common use. (Imagine if they only accepted dollar coins.)
FWIW, in Germany, shopping trollies typically take 50-cent or 1-euro coins.
Esli epei etot cumprenan, shris soa Sfaha.
For the most part I agree with you, except for the "a little RC aircraft might give your kid a cut if it crashed into them" - that cut could be a death blow to his head! Just two months (reported here on Slashdot and elsewhere) someone was killed flying their drone (granted doing some stupid trick) but it does illustrate that the dangers are real - especially if the drone is landing in someone's yard.
In conjunction with an automated (wirelessly controlled), standard-constructed receptacle atop the roof, drone delivery could really... take off. Amazon (or other delivery company) would send a special code via the Internet to the intended receptacle at the intended address. The drone flies out to the location, the drone signals the receptacle, the receptacle signals back with the code, the drone says "package ready", the receptacle opens, package dropped, lowered, or inserted from the drone, receptacle closes, drone flies off, package accessible from interior shoot or attic.