http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-...rone-delivery-plan-27overoptimistic27/5130816 At last - a postman the dog cannot bite!! But what do people think of this? I fear it would give the paranoid a new worry, the tin foil hat people will be concerned but the rest of us will probably just shrug and accept the parcel
They showed a picture Letterman had taken from 60 minutes. It did indeed look like a flying robot was pooping on the lawn. It might well succeed. I didn't think they'd be able to sell books by mail. Shipping costs would be too high. However, I think the idea might very well founder when the first person hit by a malfunctioning deliverob sues for several million. I can't scan it but I have an original cover of an early 50's Popular Mechanics showing everyone commuting by helicopters from 3000 foot buildings in the year 2000. It's framed on the knotty pine walls in my basement, right over the early Ikea couch on the linoleum tile floor.
Practical issues 1. May not work too well if the wind is too high. 2. Need a starting point in every town and city. Too bad if you live in a remote area. 3. I wonder how people in high rise flats would get their delivery? Maybe send the drone to certain coordinates (which are a location in a park) where the person is. 4. Craft must be reliable otherwise Aleksander Ulyanov might be right. There will be too many accidents. 5. Costs? Would be high. So only high value items would be delivered. 6. How do these things fly? Is there a human controlling them or are they autonomous?
What I LOVE about Bezos is that he is always thinking outside the box.....My bet is he will figure out some better delivery system. He understands (unlike some companies and the government) that we demand instant and custom support.
There is no air traffic control system for drones and they do not appear to have the ability to avoid things like telephone lines and trees without someone operating each one. It would be a logistical nightmare to pull off as anything other than a novelty. I saw a show on TV one time about UPS. Basically, getting a package from Dallas to Fargo or Seattle to St. Louis overnight is not a problem. The logistical challenge for them is the last 15 miles of delivery. If most of the trucks deliver in an inefficient manner in those last 15 miles, the whole company goes bankrupt in a matter of weeks.
Post Office still losin' money... U.S. Postal Service Lost $5.1B in FY2015 November 18, 2015 | Despite an increase in revenue of $1.1 billion, the U.S. Postal Service reported a net loss of $5.1 billion for Fiscal Year 2015, which ended on September 30th. "The U.S. Postal Service reported a net loss of $5.1 billion for fiscal year 2015 (October 1, 2014 - September 30, 2015)," the Postal Service said in an news release.
An Amazon drone loaded with a very expensive item is flying over a neighborhood where every tweaker has a shotgun. Work out what happens next
Put the drone above 5000 feet for most of it's trip, put a high res wide view camera on it broadcasting to the Cloud for all heights below 5000 and erased if the drone survives all it's landings, finally, make shooting one a 25 to life terrorism offense. People ARE still aiming laser pointers at airplanes, this is true, but I haven't noticed any airlines going out of business yet, have you?
Drones are unrealistic for that level delivery. The best way to handle the USPS funding issue is to do away with home delivery of regular mail. Limit it to packages and premium priced deliveries (and a big chunk of the postal workers).
Or we could stop making the USPS pay for the retirements of employees not yet born. It's quite profitable (if you don't count that expense) and more convenient than places like FedEx. No need to cut back on any services, jobs or pay.
I think both Ford and GM are trying to sell the USPS about 180,000 mail delivery vehicles at a cost of around $5 billion US. I believe the replacement cars are typical fossil fuel vehicles with little concern about using hybrid-electrics or electrics or other alternative fueled vehicles. We can guess from this there are approximately 180,000 mail delivery personnel on the road each day, with an average income of $50K, plus overtime and benefits, so mail delivery labor costs must be around $9 billion per year and another few billion$ for fuel, maintenance, repairs, etc...I'll guess $20 billion! So...can drones efficiently and effectively supplement 10% or 25% or larger the current delivery requirements? Drones can operate 24/7 but would have trouble with certain weather conditions. When I see USPS trucks delivering mail on Sunday's I'm always curious if that program pays for itself? I'm also curious why people in our society demand a need for mail delivery 365 days per year? In this case I'd say we have a people problem...
Well, I would be opposed... Our government is already spying on us, this is a perfect opportunity for them to spy on us more... Of course progressives would love it, which is ironic considering they always complain out jobs being outsourced, yet this would kill a ton of USPS jobs.... Besides, Amazon is trying to do this, however I'm not worried about Amazon (or any private company) because they have ZERO power... An Amazon drone wouldn't be spying on me to determine if I was a threat, or spying on me to see if I have "contraband" or spying on me to determine if I was following fascist laws... IMO, I don't like the concept of any drones... The things have the ability to be physically dangerous... What happens when they fall out of the sky, or end up destroying power lines or communication lines? even coming from that position - the risk isn't worth the reward...
agree, as long as these things having spinning blades on them, it will never happen besides it would just kill more jobs .
The more I know about Bill Gates the less I like the guy. I think that delivery drones is a terrific idea.
Exactly not to mention its only a matter if time before terrorists begin strapping explosives to these things and flying them into stadiums and crowds of people.
Well, at least they would need one big drone in order to strap enough explosives to it in order to commit a terrorist attack that is worth it, of course a drone that big would raise some eyebrows..
