Amazon conducting drone testing at secret Canadian site

[Tao]

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/mar/30/amazon-tests-drones-secret-site-canada-us-faa

 

 

Following up the fight between Amazon and the US government on permission to conduct testing of drones to deliver packages to customers.  

Amazon gets full blessing from the Canadian government to test drones carying 5 lb or less packages.  This is after repeated warnings to the US government, that they would take their testing elsewhere.

 

"Amazon is testing its drone delivery service at a secret site in Canada, following repeated warnings by the e-commerce giant that it would go outside the US to bypass what it sees as the US federal government’s lethargic approach to the new technology."

 

 

 

"The end goal is to utilise what Amazon sees as a slice of virgin airspace – above 200ft, where most buildings end, and below 500ft, where general aviation begins. Into that aerial slice the company plans to pour highly autonomous drones of less than 55lbs, flying through corridors 10 miles or longer at 50mph and carrying payloads of up to 5lbs that account for 86% of all the company’s packages."

 

[XTankSlayerX]

Read this before posting mate

 

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/11724-read-before-posting-in-this-section/

[Imabigmac]

U may have beat him but he did it better

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/338291-amazon-is-testing-its-delivery-drones-in-a-secret-location-in-canada/#entry4613348

[christianled59]

When/if this becomes a thing, what stops people from sitting out, waiting for their package and then just stealing and/or demolishing the drone?

[Victorious Secret]

When/if this becomes a thing, what stops people from sitting out, waiting for their package and then just stealing and/or demolishing the drone?

 

Lawsuits and criminal charges. Only a true idiot would do that. Drones have cameras on them and are wholly trackable through GPS. 

[christianled59]

Lawsuits and criminal charges. Only a true idiot would do that. Drones have cameras on them and are wholly trackable through GPS.

Figured. Still, there will be those people.

[Tao]

Read this before posting mate

 

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/11724-read-before-posting-in-this-section/

 

Ah I see

 

I am used to just posting links to articles as is since I see so many people like to put there own 'spin' on it before they link the article (I don't mean here in LTT, but in general).  Also people like to read the title/ summary and then comment on the article without reading it   (and fixed.  Thanks for the heads up )

 

 

 

 

On that note, kudos to the other guy who posted it for having a better summary

[Tao]

Figured. Still, there will be those people.

 

 

Yeah there are those people.  But what are you going to do with a drone that has an active video camer, a GPS tracker, and no controller?  Smash it for fun I guess.

 

I think it will be more of a problem in certain parts of the US, where it will be like playing DayZ where you are going along and "you are dead" happens all of a sudden because someone decided to shoot the drone down just for fun 

[Xorbot]

Figured. Still, there will be those people.

 

The risk assessment and cost-benefit analysis will determine if it is still profitable.  If let's say that it was not illegal to destroy a drone, it still may be a good idea to use the drones simply because of the increased revenues.

 

Let's say that 100 drones were stolen/destroyed in a year.  The increased revenue might have easily outweighed that, but I am not Amazon, and I don't know what their accounting sheets look like.

 

The same thing can be said about "pay wave", "pay pass" or any other form of the digital tap-to-pay system.  While older people I've heard said that it is an incredibly bad idea because of thieves, in reality, the amount of money generated because it takes 10 seconds less time to pay is heavily outweighing the fraud due to stolen cards.  The insurance covers it because there is hordes more money now due to quicker payment.

 

Doesn't seem believable that is true, right?  Well it is one of those things where if someone takes 10 seconds less to pay, the next order can be filled 10 seconds earlier on the same point-of-sale causing increased revenue over time.  When you multiply that with the number of POS terminals, per transaction, per store, per shopping mall, per city, per country, per continent, per year, yes, it does indeed add up, even if each transaction fee was only a single penny or the increased revenue due to taking orders faster was worth 10 cents.

 

So, a few busted drones is probably like pennies in comparison to the amount of increased revenue (which is the point of this quick delivery research and development).