"Delivery drones are coming: Jeff Bezos previews half-hour shipping from Amazon"

[Kadein13]

It sounds like a good way to get cheap drones to me. all we need is a tecky red neck hacking one and mounting a 50. cal to it

[Matsy]

Very few of these would reach there destination.

They would be taken down with stones/bricks, anything people can get there hands on.

Or people will follow them till they drop the package, nick the package and either destroy the drone or steal the drone itself.

[DAOWAce]

I saw this on TV.

 

I'm all for it.  They're building a distribution center in my state (not sure where yet), so I'll get my packages even faster (one is already a state away and deliveries take 1-2 days on average), but having same day delivery would be incredible.

 

I mean, they could ship perishables now; food that has to be chilled; it'd be amazing.  It'd be... THE FUTURE!

 

I'm excited.  Amazon seems to be turning into a global conglomerate though, kinda scary.

[Chevaishr]

you know if they hire people to fly them this would work tomorrow. imagine a room filled with people with controllers and fpv setups (oculus rift )  

[LAwLz]

Bad analogy, a delivery truck would be significantly harder to steal and the risk of getting caught is way higher as well as having to commit a few other crimes to gain access to it.

 

As for the GPS... I have 3 methods

 

Remove the battery, Lead lined box, or vacpac it and submerge underwater.

No? A delivery truck would be easier to steal. A lot of times the engine is on while they deliver stuff, so just run up to it and drive away. Much lower risk of getting caught as well since the truck will not have a GPS (if they do they are most likely handheld are easy to remove) or camera, unlike these drones.

 

Even if you remove the battery (makes it useless), put it in a lead box (extremely impractical, a Faraday cage would be far easier to make and use but again renders the drone useless) or submerge it in water (very impractical as well as makes it useless) they would still know where it was the last time, and probably know who took it thanks to cameras. Even if you somehow managed to remove the GPS without breaking the drone, you would still not be able to fly it since you can't control it.

 

You did not put any effort into that plan at all, did you? It has more holes than the Faradag cage you would block the GPS signals with has.

 

 

They would be taken down with stones/bricks, anything people can get there hands on.

I don't think you realize how high these fly, and how hard it would be to hit such a small and fast moving object so high up in the sky with a rock or brick.

 

 

Trust me people, you're not smarter than a research team full of extremely talented people who will spend several years researching this. Chances are that anything you can think of, they have already thought of and come up with several solutions for.

[lilc]

Next news story will be ' Delivery drone annihilates a flock of Geese '. For groceries and fast food I think it can be cool, however expensive tech, I would be worried. 

[JoshDOTPlay]

Am I the only one reading the article and thinking not only about the security risk but the fact that it can only deliver 10 miles away....pretty useless for most people.

[miyabwah]

Does this mean Amazon can stop cheaping out on shipping?

[Luc401]

i laughed at the henry vacum for a solid 15 minutes, thank you

[nicholaswillems]

Humans can't fly tho.

 

Rednecks will shoot it out of the sky with their shotguns.

[Bicketybam]

It's an interesting idea and if we are to believe any TV/Movie with a view of the future, drones will become part of every day life eventually, so why not as automated package deliveries?

 

I did have a few thoughts about it though...

 

1.  I bet your local parcel delivery person is thinking "Wow, thanks and now I'm out of a job, Cheers!"  ( a new thought, they are probably the people on here saying they will shoot them down :lol: )

 

2.  The drones will probably still find a reason to say why they couldn't deliver the package  - "We flew by but no one was home, you need to go to blahblahblah to pick up your package" "Wtf? I was home and standing there watching the drone fly around my house!!!"

 

3.  For those people saying they would steal it, being that it would be a premium service where you have paid for a delivery like this, not only would they already have your GPS co-ordinates, you do realize they would also have your credit card details as well (considering you just ordered an item from them)? 

 

4. And while at first it would be a premium service to select customers and only operate in certain areas, maybe down the line they will still use trucks as small base of operations for the drone to either operate out of or deliver to a pre-exsisting local hub (either unmanned or lightly manned) and the drones will fly out from those points giving them larger delivery zones.

 

5. And if they can boost the distances they can actually travel, they would be pretty good option for small packages to rural areas.

 

and finally (for now)

 

6. I see it working best (in the future) if you have a designated drop off point at your house (maybe a set location built on to your roof or where-ever) so the drone can land, scan a QR code, drop off the package into a sealed compartment and then it messages you that it has delivered the package (if you are elsewhere).

 

Well, looks like we'll (Australia) be a testing ground for Amazon to see if this works : http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/15/4840706/zookal-will-deliver-textbooks-with-drones-in-australia

[NimRock]

I don't know how old the general audience is here but shooting down a multi thousand dollar drone will also be a crime, and it will be covered with cameras so they will see who did it and where. And Amazon will no doubt throw it's full weight at anyone charged!

Destruction of property and theft, and a very real chance of getting caught, how many of you would really commit two jail worthy crimes just for an unknown package.

Isn't messing with the post a federal offence too?

There is s Ted talk on this worth watching too, I'd link if I wasn't on many cell. Someone look it up

[alchemist11]

Makes sense for rural and desert areas for small packages. Highly doubt this will work in congested cities with high-rise apartments and condominiums. Might work for suburban communities as long as the amount of deliveries are not much or not as frequent, otherwise we'd be seeing tens of drones or drones the size of vehicles (which is worrisome if there was a malfunction and it came crashing down on your home).

 

On the downside, it does take away jobs for those communities from the postal services, whether that be UPS, USPS, or others. In short, however, I don't see this happening on a grand scale... Ever. It would be much better to have humanoid robots deliver packages on self-driven cars than a flying autonomous drone.

 

As a side note... I see this as just another way for the NSA to spy on us, because there is no doubt cameras will be installed and it will be recording. Stop a crime while it is happening or find the location of hiding terrorists. The government want to monitor us constantly, and this is a valid reason to do so without breaking any laws (of course, they'll say the cameras are for navigation purposes, which it will be as well).

 

Edit: Oh, I didn't think of it until I read above, if this is entirely for delivering items from warehouses to the appropriate postal offices, I would definitely see this happening in the next five to ten years. That will prevent so much green-house gas emissions. But, my point on surveillance still stands.

[Puppet]

No? A delivery truck would be easier to steal. A lot of times the engine is on while they deliver stuff, so just run up to it and drive away. Much lower risk of getting caught as well since the truck will not have a GPS (if they do they are most likely handheld are easy to remove) or camera, unlike these drones.

 

Even if you remove the battery (makes it useless), put it in a lead box (extremely impractical, a Faraday cage would be far easier to make and use but again renders the drone useless) or submerge it in water (very impractical as well as makes it useless) they would still know where it was the last time, and probably know who took it thanks to cameras. Even if you somehow managed to remove the GPS without breaking the drone, you would still not be able to fly it since you can't control it.

 

I think you argument has the holes in it. If this became a thing people would be all over them, vandalizing them, stealing them or their packages. This isn't a debate but I still think the glorified child's toy with GPS would be easier to steal than a massive truck, more than likely fitted with GPS too.

 

I was obviously joking when I said I would take one myself. The reason I wouldn't is because I like the idea, it would be nice to have packages arrive that quickly. But there's people out there who couldn't care less and would do all of the above.

 

So I stand by what I said, this just wouldn't work! I think Amazon would like it to happen, less paycheques to send out, but at present this is probably just marketing. I find it more likely that they would automate their warehouses first.

[skywake]

People keep saying they'll shoot it down and I'm all confused. You think you could actually get away with shooting down a UAV in the middle of the street? Surely you'd get done for that. Plus again the device would have a camera and a GPS so it would know where it was shot and, potentially, have a picture of the shooter to send back.

 

Then again I am an Australian. I don't know how you Americans actually work. Is randomly shooting down things in the street actually a thing? Do people walk around randomly shooting CCTV cameras and street lamps? Maybe you guys love your guns more than I thought you did.

 

'murica!

[EldarNi]

what if someone shoot one down and send it to you with a bomb?

so many security concerns  

[blaze124]

this is awsome but im just imagining the ignorant people who are gonna try n knock it out of the sky or hit it while its on the ground.

[Kidbest100]

if i get lucky i might get an iphone 

This post made me laugh and contract cancer simultaneously.

[Jeffrey Chiu_081]

Apparently, UPS is planning to do some drone deilvery

 

http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/3/5169878/ups-is-researching-its-own-delivery-drones-to-compete-with-amazons

[big_lilo]

What if someone like, took the drone

First thing that came to my mind when I saw this on the news...."Mannn soo many of those things are gonna get stolen or even smashed with a bat once it lands"

[therussianpotato]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDOXqHUenR0

 

amzon drones? Wtf flying thing delivering ? this will never work? 

 

what do you think? 

[TheSLSAMG]

http://linustechtips...=+amazon +drone

 

Already posted.

[Blue fellow]

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/83029-delivery-drones-are-coming-jeff-bezos-previews-half-hour-shipping-from-amazon/

 

[therussianpotato]

Already posted.

okay there are a lot of stuff re posted... i just whant to know what ppl think about it

[TheSLSAMG]

okay there are a lot of stuff re posted... i just whant to know what ppl think about it

Of which is why you can go to the link I posted and read people's comments.