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Amazon Delivered Its First Customer Package By Drone (usatoday.com)
Amazon legally delivered its first Prime order in the United Kingdom last week and is preparing to enter a pilot testing period for drone delivery in rural areas in the country in the coming weeks. From a report on USA Today: The test took place within five miles of its Cambridgeshire drone testing facility outside the university town of Cambridge. The test was done with the approval of Britain's Civil Aviation Authority, which Amazon says plans to allow it to deliver to rural areas once it has amassed sufficient safety data. The test of Prime Air, Amazon's would-be service to deliver packages up to five pounds in 30 minutes or less, took place on Dec. 7, Amazon said. It was for an Amazon Fire TV and bag of popcorn and took 13 minutes from the moment the customer clicked "order" to package delivery. So far the trial includes only two customers who live near Amazon's testing facility. The company hopes to add dozens who lives within a few miles in the coming months. There will be no surcharge for 30-minute drone delivery for these customers, the company said. The Seattle-based company has made available a video of the delivery.
Taking bets on the date of the first drone shotgun casualty....
What's up with Amazon?
It was another drone. At this rate, the sky will mimic the horde of flying Sentinels in the Matrix.
I would like to predict that eventually robbing a drone in mid-flight will occur. Have you ever seen seagulls trying to steal a piece of food from each other mid-flight?
Apart from the very tired "But what about if someone shoots it down/steals it" criticism, I couldn't help but wonder to myself what happens if the land and/or landscaping around the property is less than ideal. Like un-mowed grass, or very rock/treacherous terrain. Perhaps it can drop the package from a small height?
I won't deny it looks very cool. But I'm still holding out skepticism to how well this delivery model scales up to the volume amazon truly deals with.
As an RC aircraft pilot, I wonder how these drones avoid collision with other air users? Small aircraft can move quite fast (as can birds). I am not aware that this problem has been solved well yet — visual detection may work for larger and slower objects against a simple background (sky), but generally does not work well for small objects against a busy background (which the ground often is): even human pilots have this problem (but human pilots would be flying above 400 ft normally).
Amazon legally delivered its first Prime order in the United Kingdom last week Really??
translation: only 1 in 10 got through, and im already enjoying the fruitbits and dragondildo.
We did this in 2010 and only the local paper cared. Why?
Liberty - Security - Laziness - Pick any two.
What I this? I didn't order Hellfire Missi..>(*$NO CARRIER
Time for me to re-train my buzzard..
But if you did rob one here in the UK,you would probably be done under our very nasty air piracy or anti-terrorism laws...
It'd be easy to say "the sky's the limit." But that's not exactly true any more, is it?
Says the smug-sounding voice over.
Only it is the limit, because drones don't work outside an atmosphere, do they?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
I wonder how these drones avoid collision with other air users?
I wonder why drones always seem to have open-ended propellor blades, rather than ducted fan blades. Multiple spinning knieves, a hazard to all around (even if light and soft).
Aren't ducted blades more efficient, even when the "duct" is a ring fused to the ends of the blades and spinning with them.? (That's like a continuous tip vane, reducing the air that goes around the tip, so you can use it in place of the last portion of the blade, which provides negligible thrust or lift.)
Even if not, it seems to me that they'd be both safer for anything they hit and less subject to damage when bumping into sonething.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Before a mid-air robbery occurs, we'll see at least one of these crash and injure, if not kill, a human.
Imagine what a sixty pound weight falling from 400 feet would do to a person. 27kg at 9.8 m/sec^2 has a force of 265 Newtons, falling from 122m, delivers 32,330 Joule's of energy. An order of magnitude less than getting hit by a car at 60mph, but still plenty lethal.
So Al Gore is doing package deliveries now?
I for one think this is very cool. It's energy efficient. It's fast. It relies on the successful execution of many science/tech disciplines.
What's with all the FUD?
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
Why does Amazon keep putting out these stupid drone delivery theatre videos? Yes, a quadcopter can lift a 5 pound box and fly 20 minutes out, 20 minutes back with it. And land in a big farmer's field as shown in the video. Now let me see, the market consisting of farmers living 7 miles from an Amazon warehouse dispatch center is how big exactly? Is there even one? And don't forget, this thing will need to be flown with cell coverage for the operator video... there's no way it's going to land autonomously in somebody's front yard without eventually maiming the mailman or killing the cat. And um. Exactly how many front yards are there available in the urban centers where these things would need to operate? What if it's raining? Windy? What is the failure rate? Failure mode? (Hint: it's raining hardware on your car.)
At least they showed a normal quadcopter this time, not some pathetic piece of concept art. It still just sends a simple, clear message: "Amazon is full of shit."
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
So, I forget - when these become widespread - are we allowed to shoot them down if they stray over our property? /me considers moving to a drone-traffic nexus
Requiem for the American Dream
Now they can get their doodads even faster! No need to wait until tomorrow to get your crap and put it in the corner. Now you can pay for it and get it very quickly, and put it in the corner.