http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/12/01/amazon-bezos-drone-delivery/3799021/ Obviously this is in the very early stages and years away but it's pretty fascinating. However, how do you think this would affect future jobs? If this becomes the norm in the future, what will this do to couriers like UPS or FedEx? This would make the services provided by humans less neccessary and would be another example of technology replacing humans (similiar to Jack in the Box and the automated drive thru operator). Obviously, new jobs would be created with the creation of the drones, but the newly created jobs won't replace as many jobs lost. Not to mention, the skill level for these new jobs would be higher than those of UPS/FedEx delivery men. Thoughts?
Technology should never be suppressed for the sake of jobs. We need an adequate adult re-education program to teach new skills to people who lose their jobs.
It's a very dumb and careless idea. These things are going to wreak havoc. They are going to get people hurt/killed and cause all sorts of accidents. This is just another stupid idea coming from egotistical human beings. First of all, GPS isn't that accurate, these things are going to crash into all sorts of things and leave packages at wrong addresses. It sounds like nice science fiction, but that's all it is.
Change is the only constant. When I was a young engineer, companies had lots of secretaries. Now only the big guy's secretary and the receptionist remain. What happened? Word processing and e-mail. When I was a young engineer, an engineer was expected to keep six draftsmen busy. Today only top engineers have (one) draftsman. What happened? AUTOCAD. When I was a young engineer, a client was a coal mine in India. State of the art underground, with high speed conveyors that stopped about two hundred meters short of the rail spur. There the coal poured out on the ground and workers gathered that coal into baskets and they carried it the remaining two hundred meters and up a ramp to load the rail cars. It was amazing to me, but the locals pointed out that the coolies only made a couple cents and hour and they wouldn't have any job at all if they weren't schlepping coal. Low-value work is only justified if wages are low. If wages rise far enough, automation moves in. Burger kiosks are not far away.
"Hey Amazon, trade you some drones if you show me how to operate an ecommerce site." Barack 'Literally Obama' Obama
This is the future, even with construction operators, their time is coming too. Caterpiller makes their construction equipment that has built in GPS, and the information for the excavation is downloaded into the onboard system and that all the excavation is tracked. Eventually the system will be able to self operate. Right, wrong, or indifferent, it is the times, and there is no way those companies are going back.
The first time one of these Amazon drones decapitate someone, it will be all over. Too bad someone is going to have to get seriously hurt before they put this idea to bed as usual.
They could not decapitate anyone. They are extremely lightweight. Carrying small packages. The biggest problem is kids taking your packages before you.
A criminal is going to shoot down a drone for an unknown item. Well those criminals are going to need an inside look at the actual delivery, because to shoot down a drone, not only would bring unwanted attention, the result may just be a recipe book. My money is on it will work.
A pellet gun would do the trick. But I can see crack heads following them around to generate revenue.
"It sounds like nice science fiction, but that's all it is." Taxcutter says: They tell us that automatically-driven cars are not that far off. Automated Category III instrument landings on aircraft carriers have been around for at least a decade. Doing a zero-zero approach and perfect trap on a rolling, pitching ship would be as difficult thing as you can imagine. All the objections I've heard are just details. "...the skill level for these new jobs would be higher..." Taxcutter says: And the pay.
Try and hit a target moving more than 30 miles per hour and flying more than a couple hundred yards in the air with a pellet gun.
So we must pay starvation wages, or there will be no wages at all? 100+ years and the rationalizations from the supporters of plutocracy haven't changed much, have they?
And you think our delivery drivers DON'T get into "serious accidents and crash into all sorts of things", and "seriously injure and kill and decapitate people" regularly? People are "seriously hurt" EVERY DAY by 3 ton delivery vans, not counting health effects from the pollution from burning all that diesel and gas.
If you had actually seen the "60 Minutes" piece, it was explained that it was ONLY for packages under 5 lbs.....which Bezus said was about average for their deliveries. And they leave the distribution centers for homes.....when was the last time a semi truck delivered an Amazon package to your house?!?!?
And they came in a semi truck? What were you ordering ....a cigarette boat? - - - Updated - - - That a problem?
They rob convenience stores with a gun for $20, shooting down a drone with a pellet rifle for a $75 video game that could be sold at the swap meet will bring the least attention of their criminal endeavors.
You go ahead and demonstrate hitting a drone large enough to carry a cost-effective payload at its operating speed and altitude with a pellet gun.
Notice a streak of Neo-Ludditism on the Right on this thread. Odd, they're always accusing "enviro-nuts" of being anti-technology and anti-growth?!?!?
