Drones and Autonomous Aerospace
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Abefroman
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Well since they know where you are ordering from they would have up to minute weather information and if Prime Air is available at that time. I'm sure they will have another checkbox offering to ship it as soon as weather permits. That is if the package survives all the ghetto anti-drone gangs roaming the inner city.
Chukzombi
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sounds like a bad idea for amazon. i can imagine people checking their roofs and trees for packages that claimed to be delivered. also these drones have x distance charge, so how is that factored in cost if you are receiving your item then the drone flies back home and either needs a full recharge or takes a chance on the remainder for another package that may or may not make it? by that logic, amazon will need literally millions of drones constantly sitting on chargers. amazon air wont be in my future.
Abefroman
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You know you can change batteries? Kind of how they do with all the machinery in their Warehouses. It's all automated too.
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Chukzombi
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it comes to the same thing. millions of drones and or millions of batteries sitting on chargers is still a colossal hit to resources. then you have to factor in where you stick your drone bases. then factor in that these drones can only get so close to your doorstep without risking damage to itself customer property or the customer themselves. more insurance costs.
Chukzombi
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do i need to be qualified to know that flying bricks with multiple spinning propellers can cause damage? do i need to be qualified to know that in order to avoid damage the drone needs a "safe space" to land and that safe space will be out in the open?
do i need to be qualified to know that a business of like amazon ships millions of packages per day and that when you have millions of packages being delivered every day that you need millions of drones or batteries being charged every day?
Abefroman
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You do not seem to comprehend the system at all. There are restrictions on what can an cant be shipped via drone. Then you must be within 10 miles of a fulfillment center. Not everyone is going to want to pay that premium so you don't need MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF DRONES.
I mean shit you act like changing a fucking battery is some logistical nightmare that can't be overcome.
Chukzombi
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at least you admit that is is just a novelty and not a practical method of delivery. also whether you change batteries or not you still need to charge the fucking batteries. if this werent a joke and it was going to be widely used then yes you would be charging millions of batteries, multiple times a day. do you own stock in amazon or something? dunno why this is so impossible for you to comprehend.
Abefroman
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They already charge millions of batteries a day, much bigger fucking batteries for all the warehouse equipment. Most of them by solar power. The only one that can't comprehend something is you with all of your retarded problems you think you have spotted.
Chukzombi
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alright , you win, its free energy man, and those drones dindu nuffin. good luck with your shipment of tofu burgers, if you ever receive it.
Abefroman
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Quite negative impact in fact. All those sausages getting shot out of the air by roaming gangs of drone pirates is gonna send pork prices through the roof. Also wont be able to make sausage since all the electricity will be used for charging millions of batteries.
Amazon will probably be scalping all your workers too since they'll need to hire a million plus people to put batteries on charge and open the doors for the drones.
meStevo
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I expect this will result in a significant cost savings vs shipping costs for eligible orders with a nominal fee.
Collision detection, landing on a marker set by the customer, etc will mitigate most of the complaints in this thread (theft and damage, mostly).
Collision detection, landing on a marker set by the customer, etc will mitigate most of the complaints in this thread (theft and damage, mostly).
edko
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Tuco
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As someone in this industry here are my 2cents:
1. Drone-based delivery will happen, it's just a matter of time.
2. There are several very substantial but tractable challenges to this (and generic autonomy, UAV work).
A: Payload mass vs dollar vs range: This is the same problem electric robots face, we are essentially limited by the range of lion batteries until Tony Stark makes us an arc reactor. This problem will dramatically hamstring the payloads and range these drones will carry. Ideally the payload only needs to be carried halfway, but in case of failure the drone must be capable of carting it back.
B: LZs: Unlike deliverymen which can effectively put the payload at your doorstep the drones will need an open space. From an autonomy perspective the ideal scenario would be for the LZ to have a visual landmark that the uav can use sight-based navigation to path to (Ex: a giant bullseye in your backyard). I don't think this is a feasible solution for consumer release though.
If I were doing it I would have a system that utilizes high-resolution aerial photography to specify a geolocation to delivery the package to. (Ex: driveway).The uav would then pick a generally flat area around it that is suitable for delivery. Hopefully it ends up near your driveway and not the road. Landing on the roof is less likely because although it is flat the altitudinal difference is high.
C: Cost: This is another case where the commoditization of robotics and autonomy is driving down price via economies of scale. Enthusiast drones are diminishing in costs as are very powerful navigation and perception sensors. The automotive industry is currently driving this the most, but drones are also. I don't know what the bottom line cost + capability per unit needs to be for a store like amazon to reduce costs by having some 10,000 of these drones, but I do know that it is exciting to see this kind of purchasing force enter the arena.
D: Safety/Security: People are vastly overestimating the security concerns because 1: vandalism/theft isn't as prominent as people think, 2: these drones will be dropshopping instead of humming along the surface like ED-E, 3: These systems will be able to have security measures (recording what happens) that can enable the punishment of ne'er-do-wells. Safety will be a large issue for aerial cleanliness, robots falling out of the sky and robots landing on kids playing in the yard and tearing them asunder with powerful rotors. Oh well. It'll work fine, don't worry about it.
1. Drone-based delivery will happen, it's just a matter of time.
2. There are several very substantial but tractable challenges to this (and generic autonomy, UAV work).
A: Payload mass vs dollar vs range: This is the same problem electric robots face, we are essentially limited by the range of lion batteries until Tony Stark makes us an arc reactor. This problem will dramatically hamstring the payloads and range these drones will carry. Ideally the payload only needs to be carried halfway, but in case of failure the drone must be capable of carting it back.
B: LZs: Unlike deliverymen which can effectively put the payload at your doorstep the drones will need an open space. From an autonomy perspective the ideal scenario would be for the LZ to have a visual landmark that the uav can use sight-based navigation to path to (Ex: a giant bullseye in your backyard). I don't think this is a feasible solution for consumer release though.
If I were doing it I would have a system that utilizes high-resolution aerial photography to specify a geolocation to delivery the package to. (Ex: driveway).The uav would then pick a generally flat area around it that is suitable for delivery. Hopefully it ends up near your driveway and not the road. Landing on the roof is less likely because although it is flat the altitudinal difference is high.
C: Cost: This is another case where the commoditization of robotics and autonomy is driving down price via economies of scale. Enthusiast drones are diminishing in costs as are very powerful navigation and perception sensors. The automotive industry is currently driving this the most, but drones are also. I don't know what the bottom line cost + capability per unit needs to be for a store like amazon to reduce costs by having some 10,000 of these drones, but I do know that it is exciting to see this kind of purchasing force enter the arena.
D: Safety/Security: People are vastly overestimating the security concerns because 1: vandalism/theft isn't as prominent as people think, 2: these drones will be dropshopping instead of humming along the surface like ED-E, 3: These systems will be able to have security measures (recording what happens) that can enable the punishment of ne'er-do-wells. Safety will be a large issue for aerial cleanliness, robots falling out of the sky and robots landing on kids playing in the yard and tearing them asunder with powerful rotors. Oh well. It'll work fine, don't worry about it.