Look, Up in the Sky! It’s a Can of Soup!
news.yahoo.com
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Exactly a decade ago, Amazon revealed a program that aimed to revolutionize shopping and shipping. Drones launched from a central hub would waft through the skies delivering just about everything anyone could need. They would be fast, innovative, ubiquitous — all the Amazon hallmarks. The buzzy announcement, made by Jeff Bezos on “60 Minutes” as part of a Cyber Monday promotional package, drew global attention. “I know this looks like science fiction. It’s not,” said Bez

Only one item can be delivered at a time. It can’t weigh more than 5 pounds. It can’t be too big. It can’t be something breakable, since the drone drops it from 12 feet. The drones can’t fly when it is too hot or too windy or too rainy.

You need to be home to put out the landing target and to make sure that a porch pirate doesn’t make off with your item or that it doesn’t roll into the street (which happened once to Lord and Silverman). But your car can’t be in the driveway. Letting the drone land in the backyard would avoid some of these problems, but not if there are trees.

Amazon has also warned customers that drone delivery is unavailable during periods of high demand for drone delivery.

  • elbarto777deleted by creatorEnglish
    73·
    1 month ago

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    • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      63·
      2 years ago

      It can be efficient, but the major pro-land point is: what would it do having 0 fuel?

      A car would stop, a drone would drop.

      It’s an exception and no one would pilot a drone to it’s exhaustion, but either way holding it in the air is a costy investment.

      • elbarto777deleted by creatorEnglish
        32·
        1 month ago

        deleted by creator

        • Flying SquidOPEnglish
          4·
          2 years ago

          Those don’t tend to fall out of the sky when they run out of power.

          • elbarto777deleted by creatorEnglish
            31·
            1 month ago

            deleted by creator

        • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          3·
          2 years ago

          E-bikes and e-scooters are better, but I haven’t personally seen an infrastructure to use them unless they are personally owned and recharged at home. Are there stations for them in the US?

          Robo-taxis though are their own can of worms. Discussion about their capabilities can take days.