Amazon Reveals New Delivery Drone Design With Range of 15 Miles (geekwire.com)

reifman writes: Amazon released new video of its futuristic drones (honestly, the thought of them buzzing around is the only thing that makes me want to join the NRA) but there's some hopefulness here. Prime Air vehicles will take advantage of sophisticated 'sense and avoid' technology, as well as a high degree of automation, to safely operate beyond the line of sight to distances of 10 miles or more. 'It looks like science fiction, but it's real: One day, seeing Prime Air vehicles will be as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road.' Amazon said its drones fly under 400 feet and weigh less than 55 pounds.

Comments

the main legit use i can see

[ganjadude]

The main legit use I can see would be to have this drone alone side of the delivery trucks. meaning the trucks get to keep driving, the drones when they get near the correct location grab the box and drop it on the doorstep. Less wasted gas due to keeping the truck moving, and more deliveries for the same reason.

Re:the main legit use i can see

[Areyoukiddingme]

The main legit use I can see would be to have this drone alone side of the delivery trucks. meaning the trucks get to keep driving, the drones when they get near the correct location grab the box and drop it on the doorstep.

It's no accident that the range of the drone in the video is 15 miles. The typical major metropolitan area in the United States is about 30 miles across. One depot in the middle of the city, or two at opposite ends, and the vast majority of customers are accessible with no truck at all. That's also why the new drone is a VTOL airplane, complete with wings and a rear propeller. They were chasing that range, and wings was the way to do it.

Re:the main legit use i can see

[RubberDogBone]

There are other challenges. The city where I live has three airports roughly 1/3 of the way around the circle, so each of those airports has a six-mile no-fly zone making huge areas off limits. Worse, a state agency not actually chartered to worry about air vehicles, has on their own decided most of the remaining actual downtown is also off-limits because they don't want drones flying near state-owned buildings.

Note they have no legal constitutional ability to enforce this rule but they are doing so anyway and will arrest people regardless if they have FAA approval. Amazon won't be exempted.

Worse for Amazon, their local fulfillment warehouse is located only a mile from a major airport and in fact planes coming in or leaving pass over the Amazon facility at only about 300 feet. There is no way Amazon could use that site.

Re:the main legit use i can see

[Actually, I do RTFA]

each of those airports has a six-mile no-fly zone

Which IIRC only applies above 400ft. There's a reason Amazon is aiming for below 400 ft travel.

Re:the main legit use i can see

[drinkypoo]

The city where I live has three airports roughly 1/3 of the way around the circle, so each of those airports has a six-mile no-fly zone making huge areas off limits.

Really? How do you use an airport in a no-fly zone? What airports actually have is controlled airspace, which means that you need to ask for (and receive) permission from the airport before you can fly, and you need to be in constant communication with the tower so they can for example tell you to ditch your drone if it interferes with someone having an emergency. It's not a no-fly zone.

Re:the main legit use i can see

[ScentCone]

Nothing explains the most difficult part of the operation, public acceptance of something potentially noisy and dangerous

You mean, like a 5-ton brown diesel panel truck rolling into your driveway? That sort of noisy, dangerous thing?

Re:the main legit use i can see

[sonamchauhan]

http://www.news.com.au/lifesty...

To avoid unknown 5-ton trucks in your driveway, you can fence and gate. Will drones obey this?

Re:the main legit use i can see

[drinkypoo]

The FAA says no UAS activity within 5 miles of an airport.

No, no it does not. It says not without clearance, and even that rule didn't exist until 2014. Go forth and use google.

Re:the main legit use i can see

[FlyHelicopters]

There is a great deal of misunderstanding of the whole 400ft thing...

Way too many people have read one thing, somewhere, and run off into left field with it...

The FAA regulates airspace in this country, from the ground to outer space, period.

If you pickup in a helicopter, to just 5 feet, you're flying, you must have a pilot certificate, and you must be either in an airworthy aircraft, or on a maintenance test flight.

The airspace starts from the first foot.

Where I live there are no mail trucks

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

>> normal as seeing mail trucks on the road

Where I live, we have mailmen (or mailwomen) walking door to door. Mail trucks are usually parked several blocks away.

>> drones fly under 400 feet and weigh less than 55 pounds

Well that's good. I'm sure 55 pound weights dropped from 400 feet are harmless.

Re:Where I live there are no mail trucks

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey, if there's money to be made killing that guy, Amazon is probably interested (at least a little).

Re:Where I live there are no mail trucks

[FatdogHaiku]

Hey, if there's money to be made killing that guy, Amazon is probably interested (at least a little).

This could give rise to a whole new tough guy threat...
"It would be a shame if something like a box of poorly selling books was to hit you in the head from 400 feet accelerating at 32.174 ft/s squared!"

Re:Where I live there are no mail trucks

[PhoenixFlare]

Do you feel the same way about all other aircraft, many of whom weigh much more and travel at much higher altitude, with the potential to cause a lot more damage if they fall out of the sky?

Or automobiles, with which you have to trust that a generally unknown driver has: maintained their vehicle properly, knows the traffic laws, actually decides to *follow* the traffic laws, hasn't been drinking, isn't distracted by their cellphone, has decent vision, etc.

Re:Americans...why ?

[ganjadude]

they dont. regardless of what the media and this poster said

Free Publicity For Amazon! Yay!

[Frosty Piss]

This is just Amazon pandering for free publicity. There are many many reasons drone delivery will probably never happen, certainly not within many years.

Re:Free Publicity For Amazon! Yay!

[Areyoukiddingme]

What will really make or break this (in my opinion) is the financial metrics, i.e. is it profitable to use a drone delivery system? And my guess would be that yes, eventually it will be. Hell, it could be financially feasible right now I suppose.

It's hard to tell with Amazon, since they're perfectly willing to do unprofitable things, but one supposes they have math that says it's in the ballpark, or they wouldn't continue sinking effort into it.

We know a few things about the finances of the idea. Electricity is cheap. Really cheap. Electric motors and batteries are really efficient. And automated flight is a real thing. That means little or no pilot attention for much of its journey. Judging by the video, their explicit goal is no pilot attention for any part of the journey, unless the vehicle cries for help. Which means the labor cost is cheap. That sounds like a trifecta to me.

Re:Free Publicity For Amazon! Yay!

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

Or they could just drop them in the mail, like everything else.

You're completely missing the point...this is about speed of delivery, not cost. Mail is slow. Even overnight is...well, overnight. 10 to 20 hours depending on when its ordered. Some people want it faster.

A lot of people would pay some reasonable premium to have some widget they ordered be in their hands in an hour versus overnight or 3 to 5 days from the time of ordering. And overnight shipping is very expensive regardless of how small the item may be.

Would a drone-delivered item be cheaper? Maybe, but it would almost certainly be faster, and that's what people want. That's what this is all about- getting something into a customer's hands as quickly as possible.

Would I pay the premium for a drone-delivered item? Maybe. It depends on how bad I want/need it and how much it would cost. But I'm guessing it'll be cheaper than an overnight delivery from FedEx or DHL.

editors ftw

[fisted]

honestly the though of them buzzing around

[looks at editors with a blank expression]

Time to invest in hard hats

[quantaman]

Hardware fails, drones will fall from the sky, and no one seems to be discussing this. If they fly over the roads they'll fall in traffic and cause accidents, if they fly over the sidewalks they'll hit pedestrians and cause serious injury. I'm sure the hardware is reliable but I don't think people will have a lot of tolerance for drone related injuries, is the tech really so reliable that they could be deployed large-scale without falling drones becoming a concern?

Noise pollution

[pubwvj]

If they're buzzing around they're going to be like having snowmobiles and dirt bikes overhead. We already have too much noise pollution and don't need more, especially low flying drones.

Re:Americans...why ?

[ColdWetDog]

Why do Americans want to shoot anything/everything ?

Practice. Today it's an Amazon drone, tomorrow Donald Trump. Gotta be ready.

Timing

[speedplane]

Amazon releases a major announcement about a speculative but futuristic technology they are developing 12 hours before their biggest sale of the year. Coincidence?

Re:Timing

[phantomfive]

Happened last year, too.

Re:So this is what Clarkson's doing now

[GrandCow]

Fall from grace? He, Hammond, and May are working on a new motoring show currently with a bigger budget than they ever could have hoped when they were working with the BBC. They probably all got a nice pay raise as well. There's probably a few clauses in the contract that they need to do some Amazon based commercials, but who cares?

Re:Has to be better than USPS

[rsborg]

Amazon has been in bed with the devil for a couple of years now. Nearly everything I order comes by USPS - the slowest, least reliable delivery service on Earth.

This is in direct opposition to my experience.

The Post Office doesn't seem to understand that this is their last best chance to stay relevant and possibly get out of the red. Nope, they're sticking to their old ways - yesterday's technology delivering your packages tomorrow (or next week).

Huh? Oh I see - your experience of their service is essentially filtered by your dogma (that the post office as part of the "government" is not hip enough). Keep in mind, that the USPS as a private entity that's highly controlled by Congressional edicts and orders (like this one mandating that they essentially have to run in debt to pay retirements for employees not even hired yet [1]. If you have an issue with USPS maybe you should take it up with your representative.

Another thing you have to keep in mind, is that the USPS actually fulfills a lot of orders for UPS/FedEx - UPS/Fedex simply can't compete with the USPS for hard-to-reach areas, whereas the USPS has mandates to do so, and so has found a way to do it. [2]

[1] http://thinkprogress.org/econo...
[2] http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-...

A Potential Flaw...

[Irate Engineer]

Hmmm...I could see some nefarious person or organization painting an Amazon logo on their drone, loading it up with 55 lbs of plastic explosive/ anthrax spores/[insert mayhem causing substance or object here], and flying it off to fuck up someone's day. It would look "legit", as you don't have to mock up a delivery truck to put the package on someone's doorstep.

It will be interesting when a bunch of senators and congressmen suddenly get packages from "Amazon" delivered to their doorstep - all at once.

And if you're wondering, I'm still not a terrorist, you damned infidels.

Re:Has to be better than USPS

[Actually, I do RTFA]

best chance to stay relevant and possibly get out of the red. Nope, they're sticking to their old ways

Well, according to most accounting standards and GAPP, they're in the black now. It's only a way of accounting for pensions that no other entity, public or private, uses that makes them look in the red. Congress forces them to use this bizarre method.

THey also saved some tens of billions of dollars for a modernization effort. Congress literally took it away, and used it to finance the Bush tax cuts.

Re:nice movie plot threat

[Irate Engineer]

Given that we've just had a couple of high profile examples of actual terrorist attacks, you'll note a lack of:

• drones
• plastic explosive
• any other high tech device

You will note an oversupply of:

• firearms
• fanatics prepared to use them

Yes? I also noted the lack of airliners and box knives as well. What's your point?

Re:Has to be better than USPS

[Holi]

USPS is hardly "government funded", The USPS is funded by the sale of postage.