Posted December 2, 2013 And it's not even April Fools day!! Online retail juggernaut Amazon has revealed Prime Air, a new delivery system designed to get packages to customers within “30 minutes or less using unmanned aerial vehicles.” While the retailer concedes the project looks like science fiction it insists that, “[f]rom a technology point of view, we’ll be ready to enter commercial operations as soon as the necessary regulations are in place.” The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is currently determining the rules that will need to be in place in order for aerial drones to share United States skies with traditional aircraft. Amazon hopes the FAA rules will be set as early as some point in 2015 and promises that it will be ready at this time. The retailer says that its vehicles “will be built with multiple redundancies and designed to commercial aviation standards” and that, at some point, seeing Prime Air vehicles in the sky “will be as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road today.” Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 2, 2013 I'll order a rifle, then who knows what goodies I can get for free/break for fun when I snipe one of those badboys out of the air. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 2, 2013 I'll order a rifle, then who knows what goodies I can get for free/break for fun when I snipe one of those badboys out of the air. Similar to how you can shoot presents attached to balloons with a slingshot in Animal Crossing... ...except potentially more fun/rewarding!*:p *and possibly illegal but... free stuff! From the sky! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 2, 2013 Don't think it would go beyond the experimenting phase. Was a nice little video though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 2, 2013 This is awesome. The thing about ordering stuff online is that you have to wait for it to arrive. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 2, 2013 Could be awkward if you're not home and it's left out in the street... I'd love to see this happen though. How crazy would it be to see these things flying around? In a year's time we wouldn't even notice them too... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 2, 2013 Could be awkward if you're not home and it's left out in the street... If you're not at home, why would you order 30 minute delivery? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 2, 2013 Ah yeah I overlooked that part haha I wonder if you'd be able to arrange them to drop a package off down a chimney for Christmas day... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 2, 2013 Similar to how you can shoot presents attached to balloons with a slingshot in Animal Crossing... ...except potentially more fun/rewarding!*:p *and possibly illegal but... free stuff! From the sky! Or worms. Watch our for the napalm crates. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 3, 2013 It won't get past the experimental phase, for the primary reason that people will shoot it down to claim the contents within. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 3, 2013 At the risk of utilising a cringey pun, this is never gonna fly. Kinda wish it would though. That damn thing looks so goofy. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 3, 2013 *new technology* "This is stupid; it'll never work." *technology works* "I'm so glad they made this; I knew it would work." Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 3, 2013 Apparently they already use this in China *source needed* Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 3, 2013 I do wonder how it will work for more rural areas. Surely there isn't a drone that could fly me a copy of Mrs Doubtfire from the nearest warehouse (presumably not that close) to the arse end of nowhere within 30 minutes? Maybe that would mean smaller warehouses scattered across the country or it could work alongside local businesses/shops (HMV in this case). That would definitely help the struggling high street shops. Although unmanned, easily breakable drones carrying valuables unattended is surely never a good idea? I guess they could fly high enough so that they weren't easily spotted, but I don't know what air traffic laws/permits are like so I can't really speculate with accuracy. I'd love to see it work, I just see some very big hurdles for it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 3, 2013 It won't get past the experimental phase, for the primary reason that people will shoot it down to claim the contents within. If people were that desperate, they'd hijack parcel vans. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 3, 2013 If people were that desperate, they'd hijack parcel vans. Well no, because that would involve dealing with an actual person to witness the crime. A unsupervised drone would be much easier to deal with, especially when they don't look that robust. If one flew over near my house and it somehow got knocked out of the air, I'm fairly sure that it would be very unlikely that it would be witnessed. Best case scenario is that Amazon put trackers and cameras on them, but even then the thief would still have plenty of time to remove/destroy data from the drone before the feds showed up if they knew what they were doing. Unless the video data is being streamed back to the depot, but most mobile phone networks still can't get good coverage in some areas, God knows how they'll manage that. But I doubt there will be that much security on them because of cost. By the looks of it, each drone will ship one item at a time, meaning they'll need hundreds, if not thousands of the drones. I can't imagine spending loads of money on such an inefficient way of delivery is a good financial decision, so I imagine they'll be built as cheaply as possible. If it were me, I'd make them fly as high as possible to avoid being seen/taken down. Or maybe they're banking on people thinking "If I shoot it down, maybe I'll damage the stuff it's shipping" and deciding it's not worth it. I assume they'll only be shipping small stuff anyway. It'd be hard to shoot the drone and not the parcel it's carrying. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 3, 2013 It's an interesting idea, but I agree cost and generally shitness of human beings means it might not work too well. I'm sure Argos offer an immediate/fast delivery service but I can't find much about it, reserved something in store the other week and there was an option to have it delivered within the hour - interested to see how much they charge to then see how it'd cost up against these drones(ie deliveries needed to be profitable). Or worms. Watch our for the napalm crates. If it could send the 'Incoming!' to your phone when it's about to arrive it'd be totes worth it Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 3, 2013 this could be used to send pranks to people! deliver batches of dildo's to nunaries, alcohol to AA meetings, the possibilities are endless! seriously though its a cool idea but i bet you'll get some bugs, like parcels not being delivered and people complaining only to find it left the parcel on the roof! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 3, 2013 A great idea. But I do wonder, if one of the drones decides to stop working and it crash lands, I'd only hope it doesn't decide to do so over the A14/M6/M11 nearby, that sort of thing will cause so many accidents if it hits a car.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 3, 2013 (edited) A great idea. But I do wonder, if one of the drones decides to stop working and it crash lands, I'd only hope it doesn't decide to do so over the A14/M6/M11 nearby, that sort of thing will cause so many accidents if it hits a car.. We'll have flying cars by 2015 though right? There'll be a hierarchy, worker drones will be flying below us But yeah, there's even the issue of these things just being hit by/flying into flocks of birds, surely I imagine the service would only be available on select products and only in certain parts of the country... at least until they setup more warehouses, or find a way to distribute their products into more rural areas like @Goafer said. Would so love this to happen though. What are the chances of these things being flown, or at least each one monitored by employees to help ensure issues don't occur with flying/drops and in case anything goes wrong, to create jobs? Also they'd have to have camera's on them anyway to stop the rogue employees chasing people in the street with them ;p Edited December 3, 2013 by Retro_Link Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 3, 2013 (edited) A great idea. But I do wonder, if one of the drones decides to stop working and it crash lands, I'd only hope it doesn't decide to do so over the A14/M6/M11 nearby, that sort of thing will cause so many accidents if it hits a car.. That's a good point actually, hadn't thought of that. I imagine it'll go the same way driverless cars will go. There will be one big accident, the media will go nuts, then they'll get outlawed. Or the drones will spend more time bouncing off of buildings/dropping parcels off in rivers/throwing dildos at pensioners/getting stolen/generally not working and Amazon will decide it's not worth it. I imagine the service would only be available on select products and only in certain parts of the country... at least until they setup more warehouses, or find a way to distribute their products into more rural areas like @Goafer said. The problem is, built up city areas will be a nightmare for the drone to navigate (especially if they fly as low as the video suggests) and rural areas are too spread out to guarantee the 30 minute delivery time. Those drones don't look very fast, so what are the odds of there being a copy of that one DVD I really want withing 30 minutes drone flight from me? I'd be better off driving to the local HMV or something instead. I imagine it will only be on recently released games/dvds etc. Good God, could you imagine What are the chances of these things being flown, or at least each one monitored by employees to help ensure issues don't occur with flying/drops and in case anything goes wrong, to create jobs? Also they'd have to have camera's on them anyway to stop the rogue employees chasing people in the street with them ;p That doesn't seem very cost effective though. A delivery could take up to an hour (including return time), so Amazon have to pay an employee for an hour to deliver one package. Either the price of delivery will be very expensive, or a whole squadron (I'm calling them squadrons now) will have to be monitored by a few people. That said, I would like to be in that control room when shit goes down. TC: "Thunder Cougar to Amazon One, I've got a school boy with a catapult locking on to my location. Advise" A1: "Thunder Cougar, this is Amazon One. Proceed as scheduled. Do not deviate from route" TC: "He's locked on and preparing to fire. Request barrel roll" A1: "Request denied Thunder Cougar, continue on route" TC: "OH GOD HE'S HIT ME. THE BASTARD HAS HIT ME. I'M GOING DOWN. PROTECT THE CARGO" A1: "Report Thunder Cougar, REPORT!" TC: "Amazon One, we've lost the Jumanji Special Edition. I repeat: We have lost the Jumanji Special Edition" A1: "May God have mercy on us all..." Edited December 3, 2013 by Goafer Automerged Doublepost Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 3, 2013 You guys seem to be missing the point entirely. This isn't being pitched as a replacement for traditional deliveries. It's a 30 minute deliver. It's an alternative to a courier. It's already stated that this will eb an Amazon Prime product. this could be used to send pranks to people!deliver batches of dildo's to nunaries, alcohol to AA meetings, the possibilities are endless! You can already do that. A delivery could take up to an hour (including return time), so Amazon have to pay an employee for an hour to deliver one package. But that's still the case with a courier. Except they also have to pay for fuel, tax etc. And they risk getting stuck in traffic. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 3, 2013 But that's still the case with a courier. Except they also have to pay for fuel, tax etc. And they risk getting stuck in traffic. Yeah, but they deliver multiple items at once and it's all arranged through a delivery network on prearranged routes (at least until the final stage). A drone will have to return to the depot after every delivery. A good comparison would be a postman's round. The costs of getting the parcel to the local depot/sorting office will be the same for both the postman and the Amazon drone service, so that's still the same. The postman starts at the sorting office, goes out to his area and delivers 200 letters/parcels (I imagine it's much higher to be fair) in his 8 hour shift. That's an average of 2.4 minutes per letter. Compare that to up to an hour for a drone pilot to deliver one parcel from their local depot. I'm not saying the whole service won't work, I'm just saying one person controlling/monitoring each drone is unrealistic. Another thing to consider: What about windy days? Will the service be weather dependent? I'd love to see it work, I really would but I honestly can't see this working. There's far too many things to consider: Price, reliability, environmental factors. Since only small things can be shipped this way, the delivery price will have to be very cheap for it to be worth it. I can either see it being a cheap, shoddy service or an expensive option no one will use. Plus there's the legal side of things. Most government ministers still have no idea how the internet works, so I can't see them saying yes to hundreds of unmanned robots taking to the skies. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 3, 2013 Yeah, but they deliver multiple items at once and it's all arranged through a delivery network on prearranged routes (at least until the final stage). A drone will have to return to the depot after every delivery. A good comparison would be a postman's round. The costs of getting the parcel to the local depot/sorting office will be the same for both the postman and the Amazon drone service, so that's still the same. The postman starts at the sorting office, goes out to his area and delivers 200 letters/parcels (I imagine it's much higher to be fair) in his 8 hour shift. That's an average of 2.4 minutes per letter. Compare that to up to an hour for a drone pilot to deliver one parcel from their local depot. But that's what I'm saying. You can't compare it to a postal service. You need to compare it to a courier service. An "instant" courier will deliver one parcel at a time, as they are doing bespoke requests, not pre-arranged routes. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
