• Amazon unveils 30-minute delivery by drone, hopes to launch in 2015
    173 replies, posted
[QUOTE=latin_geek;43041963] It seems like a solid system, specially for deliveries to rural areas and the like, where the price to get people and a truck all the way there would be way too expensive to deliver just one package.[/QUOTE] It has a 10-30 miles range, from what I've read. So it's only for urban areas. [QUOTE=Trumple;43042081]I have the feeling that it will automatically fly to your house given rough GPS coords then await some remote pilot to guide it to your porch or back garden. How will this work for blocks of flats?[/QUOTE] I think you can define precisely where you want it to land with GPS + something else? If you live in an apartments, that address can have one place defined for "amazon drone packages" that has to be defined by someone? As for how it will handle unique situation, I think it can just map the location to avoid obstacles and get to its destination (as soon as it starts landing, for instance), right? While it isn't simple it's certainly not impossible.
[QUOTE=Rastadogg;43041974]What happens if you order a bunch of stuff with this at the same time? Do they just send out a swarm of them?[/QUOTE] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPf_PJlJsJQ[/media]
this reminds me of tacocopter
What if my package is in the NY distribution center? It'd have to travel mach 4 (at sea level) to get here in 30 minutes.
[QUOTE=adnzzzzZ;43042474]It has a 10-30 miles range, from what I've read. So it's only for urban areas. [/QUOTE] For now. I'm sure amazon can figure out some sort of drone recharging station if this catches on.
[QUOTE=adnzzzzZ;43041285]I think they'd take that into consideration. They'll either not use them on super strong winds, or make it so that they can still function under those conditions (and they will test that, obviously). I think you give it GPS coordinates. Those are pretty accurate, no? (from what I read it's 7.8 meters range for error)[/QUOTE] I was watching the interview on 60 minutes and one of the questions was on the lines of "so you hope for the drones to be remote controlled?" and the guy from amazon's answer was "no fully automated, we know we have a lot of things to take into consideration, and we're working on that as hard as we can, as well as them being electric powered, so they're more green"
[QUOTE=sloppy_joes;43042506]For now. I'm sure amazon can figure out some sort of drone recharging station if this catches on.[/QUOTE] I don't see why this wouldn't catch on, charging stations don't have to be huge and it will save so much money It could probably land then hotswap the battery and move on
[QUOTE=QuinnithXD;43042529]I was watching the interview on 60 minutes and one of the questions was on the lines of "so you hope for the drones to be remote controlled?" and the guy from amazon's answer was "no fully automated, we know we have a lot of things to take into consideration, and we're working on that as hard as we can, as well as them being electric powered, so they're more green"[/QUOTE] Fully-automated drones sound counterproductive and just a way to make it way more difficult and error prone If they're replacing or aiding city deliveries they can fire those delivery guys and hire drone pilots
Is this bullet proof? I can see confused Americans shooting these down in fear of French invasion.
[QUOTE=adnzzzzZ;43042474]It has a 10-30 miles range, from what I've read. So it's only for urban areas.[/QUOTE] Thats a pretty good range, I just dont see how it can have that high of a flight time. The frame looks heavy as it is not counting the battery weight and the package itself. longest I would guess it could fly is 30 mins.
Oh man, you know what'd be cool, if mailboxes were replaced by "drone stations" (where the drones drop the shit they're delivering to you) in the future. I hope 10-20 years from now this happens. Although, I wonder if drone visual clutter in the sky will become an issue... The sky is pretty much the only area of a big city that hasn't been tainted completely by humanity. : p [QUOTE=Cmx;43042569]Thats a pretty good range, I just dont see how it can have that high of a flight time. The frame looks heavy as it is not counting the battery weight and the package itself. longest I would guess it could fly is 30 mins.[/QUOTE] It's only a prototype. They still have 2-3 years to work on it.
[QUOTE=Cmx;43042569]Thats a pretty good range, I just dont see how it can have that high of a flight time. The frame looks heavy as it is not counting the battery weight and the package itself. longest I would guess it could fly is 30 mins.[/QUOTE] 10" cf props + high efficiency, low RPM motors + multiple 5000mAH LiPo batteries = 45mins+ flight time.
This almost sounds like an April Fool's Day joke, except it's the first of December, rather than April. Well, I'm excited.
[QUOTE=Bradyns;43041264]An Australian uni beat them by a few months. Good to see it go commercial.[/QUOTE] Unfortunately, it will go commercial in Australia way later than other countries, considering the law regarding drones in Australia says you have to be within 30m of the one that you are operating. Also, bogans will shoot it down and Tony Abbot will use it to somehow decredit the NBN .
[QUOTE=NuggetWarmer;43041316]What about apartment buildings? Would you have to stand outside waiting for 30 mins?[/QUOTE] it smashes in through the window
[QUOTE=TurtleeyFP;43042482][media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPf_PJlJsJQ[/media][/QUOTE] [I]In the future, the days after Cyber Monday will have their own name as thousands of unmanned aerial vehicles take to the skies to deliver packages to customers across the world. [/I]
Reading this thread made me imagine a giant Amazon Drone Nexus that blares things over loudspeakers every time a drone shuts down. [B]"ATTENTION. DRONE 147 HAS TRANSMITTED ELECTRICAL FAILURE AT DESTINATION. INVESTIGATION TEAMS, STAND BY FOR ADDRESS."[/B]
[QUOTE=itak365;43043090][I]In the future, the days after Cyber Monday will have their own name as thousands of unmanned aerial vehicles take to the skies to deliver packages to customers across the world. [/I][/QUOTE] I imagine Cyber Monday being waged as hundreds of thousands of drones swarming around, while anti-aircraft guns from competing shoppers shoot thousands down as death squads patrol and loot the wreckages. Shopping has changed.
I would not want to work near where they send these out, it would be this 24/7 [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E6ljLSOkbY[/media]
Pizza delivery will be done by drones one day. It will be glorious
[QUOTE=smurfy;43043295]Pizza delivery will be done by drones one day. It will be glorious[/QUOTE] Porn with pizza delivery boys will never be the same.
Oh man, the security precautions their technical team will have to go through with these things are going to be crazy. Then again, I guess they could just automatically reinstall their software at a docking station every night to make it easier.
[QUOTE=Novangel;43043268]I imagine Cyber Monday being waged as hundreds of thousands of drones swarming around, while anti-aircraft guns from competing shoppers shoot thousands down as death squads patrol and loot the wreckages. Shopping has changed.[/QUOTE] War. War never changes.
[QUOTE=smurfy;43043295]Pizza delivery will be done by drones one day. It will be glorious[/QUOTE] [media]http://vimeo.com/73417594[/media]
[QUOTE=Novangel;43043301]Porn with pizza delivery boys will never be the same.[/QUOTE] Porn? What happened to a simple tip?
[QUOTE=Pilotguy97;43043254]Reading this thread made me imagine a giant Amazon Drone Nexus that blares things over loudspeakers every time a drone shuts down. [B]"ATTENTION. DRONE 147 HAS TRANSMITTED ELECTRICAL FAILURE AT DESTINATION. INVESTIGATION TEAMS, STAND BY FOR ADDRESS."[/B][/QUOTE] [img]http://i.imgur.com/SpgbJ9P.png[/img]
This seems surreal, like it's just a joke or something. I really can't imagine this in play :v:
I have to share this, tangentially related but so good: [url]http://miraclejones.blogspot.com.br/2013/11/fulfillment.html[/url]
[QUOTE=Trumple;43042081]I have the feeling that it will automatically fly to your house given rough GPS coords then await some remote pilot to guide it to your porch or back garden. How will this work for blocks of flats?[/QUOTE] probably some type of supplemented LIDAR attachment for enhanced situational awareness so basically you can reconstruct a rough 3D representation of the area around the UAV
Just by reading the title I thought they were like UAV type drones (well obviously it's unmanned, here's a pic of what I thought) [IMG]http://20committee.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/uav-hellfire-missile.jpg[/IMG] One of those. So it'd carry a [B]lot [/B]of customers' stuff but whatever you had shipped would be dropped from an altitude and at speed, so it would slide into your driveway at 120 mph or whatever the stall speed is for one of those Don't order a laptop or eggs
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