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How Amazon's Drone Deliveries Will Work (yahoo.com)
An anonymous reader writes: In a new interview, Amazon has revealed details of the drone delivery program they're building out. VP Paul Misener said, "Prime Air is a future delivery service that will get packages to customers within 30 minutes of them ordering it online at Amazon.com. The goals we've set for ourselves are: The range has to be over 10 miles. These things will weigh about 55 pounds each, but they'll be able to deliver parcels that weigh up to five pounds. It turns out that the vast majority of the things we sell at Amazon weigh less than five pounds." They haven't set pricing yet, but deliveries will follow the same protocols that trucks do now — if you're not home, it'll be left on your doorstep or in your yard. The company is developing different kinds of drones to service different climates. They also expect the regulatory issues to dissipate once they can demonstrate how safe the drones are. Amazon anticipates the vast majority of drone flying to be done between altitudes of 200ft and 400ft.
While I don't think the idea makes a lot of sense (Pinkdot anyone?), it is pretty cool. Serious question: why send these from a warehouse? Why not load a flat bed truck up with 50 or so, and drive it to the closest point that all 50 deliveries share and then release them from the back of the flat bed all at the same time. The video linked in the post shows a drone being launched from a warehouse; not too many people live near amazon warehouses.
The plan is probably to eventually have a small fleet of drones attached to a self-driving (probably electric drive) vehicle where they can return to recharge after making the delivery hop locally. The drone fleet could also hop to a new vehicle that was dispatched from the local warehouse with new deliveries. I would not be surprised if the vehicles will also be able to recharge themselves at their own charging ports at the warehouse or somewhere on the delivery route.
If you buy all your groceries from Amazon Pantry, the sky will blacken with a swarm of drones, each loaded with a single can of baked beans.
The idea sounds cool enough, but how does it benefit the customer? I am struggling to figure out what issue is solved by drone delivery. Drones are not faster than cars so it is not a speed issue. The drones require pilots so it is not a labor issue. Drones are expensive compared to a scooter or a used car so it is not a cost issue. Drones can't fly in bad weather so it is not a reliability issue...
If you are only 10 miles from your customer, you might as well open a retail store. Order on-line and pick up at the counter.
Pizza delivery has been 30 minutes or less for decades and they do not need drones.
There is no such thing as "zero risk" technology. It's a good thing safety zealots weren't around 100 years ago, otherwise we would have never developed automobiles or air travel.
The FAA should just ask Amazon to write the laws on commercial drone delivery and save us taxpayers the time and money. Honestly, I trust Amazon to write better rules for this (and take far less time to do so) than the FAA will ever be able to do. They took over a decade to come up with their current "register your drone" website that doesn't do anything but give the feds another list.
One thing aerial drones can do that delivery guys can't is access a fenced back yard. Instead of dropping it off on the front porch, they can drop it off on your back patio.
The 'not at home' delivery is the most confusing to me. I can't imagine they'd get very close too the door. They definitely can't 'hide it inconspicuously' behind something. I guess even when you are at home, they can't really knock on the door. So I guess it's just the middle of the yard every time.
At least the backyard would be better.
--Welcome to the Realm of the Hawke--
You must not know very many pre-teen and teen-age boys...they are pretty destructive. I know I was; I almost burned my house down a few times, we would shoot each other with BB guns, make our own "melee weapons" our of random metal pieces and fight in the back yard, toilet paper / egg people's houses, and other assorted madness. If drones had been flying around we most certainly have taken shots at them.
These aren't even 50% risk technology. Trees, overhead wires, buildings. You can't make it work.
You mean sort of like 10,000 lb brown steel vans with whirring metal parts and a large payload of flammable fuel piloted by a rushed/distracted operator speeding through populated areas while looking for addresses, backing out of driveways and turning rapidly?
I'm sure the same way any fleet of other vehicles is maintained. Repair it until it no longer meets serviceability standard, then part it out or scrap it. How is this any different than if a tire on a UPS truck blows out sending the truck careening into oncoming traffic? They do a reasonable amount of preventative maintenance to ensure a level of usefulness and safety, but occasionally a machine breaks and it could potentially hurt someone when it fails -- just like every other aspect of our lives. I know I'd rather be hit by a 55 pound out-of-control drone than a 10,000 pound out-of-control truck. Even still, I would imagine that a drone AI could be programmed to crash into trees or empty green space or some other reasonably safe emergency landing sites in the event of failure.
We pretty much know how these things will fail. Batteries are only good for so many discharge / recharge cycles, so simple counting can tell you when to dump a battery (note that disposing of LiPo batteries can be an environmental nightmare if not done properly). Motor and ESC failure is known but tends to happen on spin-up (these machines are not racing quads, so there shouldn't be the huge instantaneous current draws that a racer needs). The biggest single point of in-flight failure is propellers: you simply expect to have an in-flight failure at some point in time (hence responsible quad operators avoid areas where their machine dropping out of the sky will hurt someone).
Conversely, a quality frame will simply last and last (unless you're smashing it into things). If Amazon had an aggressive maintenance schedule for their fleet (batteries every x flights; propellers every y flights or if situations warrant it; motors / ESC's every z flights) then the frame becomes a multi-year investment.
Even with all of this, there are going to be in-flight failures that can't be predicted. It's a question of how many failures per thousand flights, and given the swarm of drones Amazon seem to be dreaming of, is the number going to result in a monthly failure, a weekly failure or a daily failure?