Drones and Autonomous Aerospace

That device will be highly illegal if ever "implimented". You can not interfere with a radio signal with active means and the FCC frowns on it highly.

The FAA has a deal before them now to require a license for all "drones" including small RC types and you must have your license number visible on the "drone" at all times and cap it at 55 pounds which apparently came in via the AMA. It's pretty much a clusterfuck now.

Obviously they will have a different set of rules and license for those that are for profit much like the FCC.

The skies will be the new wild west, birds will be the injuns.
Legal question: if someone on my property jumps, can I shoot/rob them?

Bisi, we already have the technology. No birdfeed necessary.

Canada has the same line of site restrictions currently. It is one of the main limiting factors of this tech.

don't forget that from a cost and profit standpoint, amazon will charge about 100 bucks to have your pair of sneakers drone delivered

I'm just making up numbers, but the logic is that shipping rates for amazon are pure profit. This initiative of drone delivery is -not- a cheap one. Without amazon prime, amazon delivery prices are inflated. Not on everything, but on an awful lot of things -- they get you in the cost of shipping. Over the years, and recently for christmas shopping, it's not entirely uncommon to find items where the shipping is 50%+ of the total cost. That drive Prime sales more than their television and movie selection, I think.

So you've got a novelty delivery system like this, and it's one that isn't going to be cheap to maintain and R/D in the first place. Amazon ain't gonna eat that cost.

Drone delivery will be expensive. But maybe it will be reasonable with a Prime membership. They've got to find that line where people are willing to actually use it. They've also got guys in offices whose job it is to scientifically derive that line. Probably unavailable without one -- so why should I care.

I still think it's just goofy. It's a neatidea, I'll give it that. I don't see how it's practical for most commerce. But I ain't amazon, and amazon seems to think it is practical for enough commerce to be worth exploring.

Why will drone delivery be expensive?

Yeah, that could very well be. It probably is.

That's where you get into the security of the system though, and the costs involved which amazon will not pay. They have to pay those security costs with the teamster. With drone delivery I see it being pushed onto the taxpayer.

How will security costs change?

Lithose_sl said:

Amazon is going tocrowdsource some last mile services.(And I assume this will be the method for packages too larger for drones). Because, as Picasso said, that is the expensive part of delivery. Essentially UPS/Fed Ex will deliver to their depots and transport between depots; then any package that doesn't make it out during the cheapest delivery times (IE that can't be bundled on a big route ect), will get flexed out...They can afford to be generous to the flex drivers too, because supposedly these "extras" or "immediate delivery" (Can't wait for the big bundle tomorrow OR you've paid extra for immediate delivery") are the really expensive part of delivery rates.

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They did a pilot for the crowdsourced delivery in LA earlier this year. It was horrible, lost something like 3 packages, amazon is unable to track it well and had no idea where my stuff was at all. Other people I knew had problems as well.

CaughtCross_sl said:

They did a pilot for the crowdsourced delivery in LA earlier this year. It was horrible, lost something like 3 packages, amazon is unable to track it well and had no idea where my stuff was at all. Other people I knew had problems as well.

Click to expand...

Because of shit like this, Picasso.

that's not a kink in the system, that's a basic flaw. You don't think that will increase the burden on the police and court systems? Amazon half-assing it and then when their shit inevitably gets stolen they don't have the teamsters union of truckers to negotiate rates with. That's a security cost. Those thieving teamsters have a vested interest in not skimming too much. What Amazon will have instead is a detective who they say, "Please to go find our stuff." to.

I'm not considering the case where there is no administrative incompetence, no property theft, no technical failures. If you stipulate perfect conditions then a perfect result should not be surprising. I would like to consider the case where things go wrong. What happens in that case, where things go wrong? Well -- amazon loses profit and property, and we send police out on snipe hunts. Compare that to the delivery driver stealing. Amazon still loses profit and property but they are able to recoup some of that loss through that middleman of that trucker, and we send the police out on snipe hunts. That's a different security cost. c/2 tends to be a larger number than c/3.

Now add on the fact that the delivery system is only practical for high value items. This is basically a delivery system for electronics because of the weight restrictions. Hell, it wouldn't surprise me if people started to steal the drones themselves for parts.

So yeah, there are problems. The system is fundamentally less secure. How could it not be? You could make the drone itself out of one giant camera and GPS tracker and it would still be less secure than a human agent with an incentive to not steal. The system will still work -- but it will work because we have a police force, which amazon does not pay for, which will compensate for that lack of security.

The sky won't fall. Amazon is cutting a corner.

So a guy driving a truck, stopping 1000 times a day with no doors, leaving shit on people's front fucking doorstep on a daily routine is less secure than an automated drone flying 50mph at 400 ft with no stops to the target, dropping shit off wherever they set down a pad presumably at the timing whim of the orderer?

The notion itself is shit but then to say it's going to shift security to the taxpayer because the cops recoup so many stolen packages that amazon gets some of that back?