Is Amazon Spinning Its Wheels?

[Rayray]

Amazon's latest delivery drone appears to be an Octocopter. Jeff may actually be serious about DD (drone delivery, lol), but he's still needs to get the Feds on board.
Amazon Shows off Delivery Drones at SXSW - DRONELIFE

 

[CC Rider]

Amazon's latest delivery drone appears to be an Octocopter. Jeff may actually be serious about DD (drone delivery, lol), but he's still needs to get the Feds on board.
Amazon Shows off Delivery Drones at SXSW - DRONELIFE

A very good read. Thanks, again, for sharing what you find with the rest of us.

Sure does look like this is still an uphill battle for Amazon to say the least, technologically, practically, and politically speaking. A whole lot of obstacles yet to avoid, despite their advancements in their obstacle avoidance systems!

Although Amazon has set some very lofty goals for itself to attain, they may very well remain grounded by the sheer magnitude of what they are striving to accomplish. By extending themselves this far to date on their drone delivery project and dream, they have bitten off quite a mouthful to chew. Supporters and critics alike will definitely be keeping their eyes on what occurs next.

 

[gwhuntoon]

I'm still curious about their patents for floating, fully automated fulfillment centers. I thought I'd read, they'd hover around 70,000 feet above most air traffic. Just curious how automated transports would push and pull inventory through commercial airspace.

 

[RiverRunner]

I have said from the beginning that this sounds like a publicity stunt. It makes no sense at all to me from a practical standpoint. They claim they will have 30 minute round trip flight time. That means that they would need a warehouse 15 minutes from everyone's house which contains the most ordered items under 5 pounds. I read that Amazon ships over 1000 packages a minute. If half of those were delivered by drone, the sky would be covered with them. What about the liability? These have to be large, heavy drones to carry 5 pounds for that distance. They would have large batteries. The first time one of them fell onto a freeway with fast moving traffic, it would cost them more than any potential savings from this delivery method. Even crashing one in the woods could start a big fire. What about curious kids approaching one of these drones as it lands? The risk seems way higher than the rewards.
Even the military has had flyaways with their million dollar drones which are usually in the control of a pilot full time. In spite of all safeguards if you put thousands of autonomous drones in the air every day, you are going to have some failures and they won't be pretty.

 

[Rayray]

Page 2

Amazon drone delivers sunscreen: Will this be the future?

 

[Ty Pilot]

I have always wondered how they would contend with weather, it seems to me, this factor alone would put a large percentage of flights at risk especially at the distances needed to fly. Here in Florida weather changes so quickly in the summer months I couldn't see them successfully completing 20% of scheduled flights with a UAV unless they had the ability to switch delivery methods at the point of distribution.

Pat

This from a link in the referenced article:

The application, originally filed last spring, proposes that the drones save energy, recharge, and seek shelter by riding on top of other vehicles for part of their journey. In addition to utilizing its own trucks for the purpose, Amazon is hoping to form partnerships with other shipping companies and even public transportation agencies to give drones permission to land on trucks and public buses. The drones would use identifying markings and GPS coordinates to find vehicles to land on if they were in trouble or out of battery life. This fits in with Amazon’s earlier suggestion that partnerships should be utilized to help in other methods of delivery; such as fitting products into underutilized space on newspaper delivery trucks already scheduled along similar routes.

 

[Jafo]

I have written in the past.... "Either due to mechanical failure or some idiot taking pot shots at the drone, as soon as one of these drones comes through someones windshield it will be all over.For everyone".
Jmo thanks

 

[Ty Pilot]

I can't help but wonder, if somehow they do pull this off will it have a good or bad impact on small commercial UAV operation and the personal and hobby users in general? As it stands today the general public are cluless and fearful in some respects towards UAVs and the "D" word - if AMAZON starts operations, would it perhaps help "normalize" the GP's perception of our community.

Pat