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Coming Soon to a Front Porch Near You: Package Delivery Via Drone (wsj.com)
After lagging behind other countries for years, commercial drones in the U.S. are expected to begin limited package deliveries within months, according to federal regulators and industry officials. [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; an alternative source was not immediately available] From a report: The momentum partly stems from stepped-up White House pressure, prompting closer cooperation between the government and companies such as Amazon.com seeking authorizations for such fledgling businesses. The upshot, according to these officials, is newfound confidence by both sides that domestic package-delivery services finally appear on the verge of taking off. Earlier promises of progress turned out to be premature. The green light could be delayed again if proponents can't overcome nagging security concerns on the part of local or national law-enforcement agencies. Proposed projects also may end up stymied if Federal Aviation Administration managers don't find creative ways around legislative and regulatory restrictions such as those mandating pilot training for manned aircraft. But some proponents of delivery and other drone applications "think they might be ready to operate this summer," Jay Merkle, a senior FAA air-traffic control official, said during a break at an unmanned-aircraft conference in Baltimore last week that highlighted the agency's pro-business approach.
Many issues with drones, which are basically small helicopters...
(1) Noise, noise, noise. Do we want to have hundreds of loud little helicopters flying around?
(2) Helicopters aren't exactly stable on the best of days. Lose power, it falls out of the sky. Catch the wrong kind of wind gust, same. See also, helicopter crash in NYC's East River yesterday. And yes, an 20 pound object falling from 50 feet can do damage or even kill.
(3) Energy. It takes power to beat the air into submission.
Surface delivery via a small automated or semi-automated cart seems more promising.
I am against "Drone Delivery" for one fundamental reason: Gravity. If a delivery truck has a mechanical failure, it's just dead on the road No harm done to the cargo. Gravity does not ensue upon my package. If a delivery drone has a mechanical failure, down it goes, and so does my package.
If a delivery truck takes a hit, it'd have to be a pretty seriously heavy hit to damage my package. If a delivery drone takes a hit... All aircraft are designed first and foremost to optimize weight, because it has to work against gravity to even move. It just doesn't have the bulk to sustain damage like a ground vehicle does.
By taking a picture of the package on your doorstep and decreeing that anything after that isn't their problem.
See, that way they can say "hey, we delivered it and left it out completely unattended, if it got stolen we can't help you".
Awesome, isn't it?
Remember the good old days when you needed to sign for a package to be sure it was delivered to you? Now parcel delivery is pretty much reduced to "abandon it outside and forget about it".