Amazon Prime Air

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Putting aside the fact that these things are supposed to be able to deliver to windows . . .

I didn't know that, as I had only read the Washington Post story, which only mentioned lawn delivery:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...s-with-drones/

If Bezos did actually mention tossing through windows, this makes it even more preposterous. The only reason I can think he would mention something so unlikely is to deter people like me from labeling his copters as rich persons's toys invading the airspace of everyone else in major metropolitan areas.

Would you for instance, commute an extra 5-50 miles a day, just so you could have drone delivery?

Since I'm against it, no. No one else will just for that one factor, but it would go into the mix where the affluent choose between a Park Avenue apartment and a Westchester County McMansion.

Do you get a package an hour or even one a day that you must absolutely have now?

Not even one in my lifetime.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

Driverless cars are already HERE.
.

I know.
Which is why I'm thinking of usage models where they make business sense.
Most states where they are currently legal still require a licensed human in front of the controls.
Full autonomous licensing is still a ways off.

The key problem is emotional. Nobody wants to call these devices by their proper label: R-O-B-O-T-S.
I blame James Cameron.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Kind of like UPS etc. although I am not sure what you mean by what no human would stand for in the way of a delivery route. I can see a flying vehicle going over swamps and water etc. But a ground based one? I am sure that they could, but would delivery to say a militant survivalist camp or to somewhere out in the alligator infested bayou be commercially viable enough to make it worthwhile on a regular basis? Obviously you think it would, but I am just not seeing it.

Helen

How many humans willingly drive 24x7, with only refueling pitstops, for weeks on end? Robot vehicles could do it for months.

Instead of round-tripping the way humans with families and home bases must (even long distance truckers) a robot car can complete a delivery run and move onwards to a refueling/recharging station at the nearest distribution center and go on a further run from there. A vehicle could over weeks go from Washington state to Florida in a series of daisy-chained delivery runs, with minimal empty travel time, maximizing vehicle utilization and productivity.

[sirmaru]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Is the voice command not the driver? Can you get in the car at Johnson City and say take me to Atlanta and expect to get there without any intervention?
Why would it take three years to learn to use it if it didn't need a driver? Just get in and say Home James or Office James.

Still it must be nice for you to have something like that vaguely close to working on it's own. Lucky guy

Helen

I say "Find NNN 4th Av City State" and the car does it all: stop signs, turns, detours, etc. However, if the satellite is down, it is polite enough to say, "We are lost." That already happened several times and I just park for 5 to 15 minutes and hope. I can also say, "Find Favorites," and then keep saying "Page Down" until I see one I want. Then I just say the number.

To go home, I just say, "Find Home." I can then relax and read a Kindle eBook. However, it does have a steering wheel in case there is no satellite for a long time. I do keep my hands near the wheel to hold if police are nearby. In my state a special permit is required (similar to those for the handicapped). If I ever lost the satellite for more than 60 minutes, I'd have to call for Roadside Assistance since I'd have no idea where I was or how to get home.

If passengers want to talk, I must turn off Voice Recognition so it doesn't hear someone say, "stop," by accident. That happened once and the car moved into the side lane and actually parked on a highway.

The best Voice Command is, "Play Song AAAA" and it actually finds that particular song on my USB drive and plays it. I believe there are over 200 Voice Commands so it does take a few weeks of training to master them and when and how to use them. It communicates through my cell phone and receives and makes calls. However, I never answer calls while the car is in motion since I still want to be alert in case of problems. I call back folks when the car is stopped.

When it is backing out of a space in a parking lot, it shows a rear camera view on my dashboard. If a pedestrian is approaching even 4 cars away, it stops and beeps and flickers a light on the camera and patiently waits for the pedestrian to clear my car and walk 4 cars in the opposite direction. If someone tailgates me, it beeps loudly, flashes red lights at the offender and gradually slows my car forcing the tailgater to a stop.

The car measures miles to empty and, when a setting is reached (I have it set for 100 miles), it drives to the nearest gas station with the lowest price in the area. If I say "Tune BBC or CNN", it actually tunes to those stations turning off the USB songs. If I say, "Change Source USB," it turns back the music. The dashboard displays song name, artist, composer, album and an album picture. Some songs do not display all the information for some reason even though all were purchased from Amazon.

[speakingtohe]

Well even with it's quirks it sounds mighty nice. I want to see one of those in action some day

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Big problem: flight time is around 10-15 minutes maximum, and it has to get there and back again in that time.

Clearly, it would be an improved model with a flight time of a couple of hours at least.

I know it sounds ridiculous, but I don't think that's because of technical problems. Insurance and authorisation seem to me to be bigger issues.

[fjtorres]

The latest on self-driven cars:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57...-city-streets/

Volvo is joining the game and loosing a hundred of them in Sweden, circa 2017.

The self-driving vehicles to be used in Drive Me are defined as "highly autonomous cars." This means the automobile can handle all driving functions the driver requires except for time-to-time scenarios that are a bit more tricky. The cars will also be able to self-park without the driver in the car. The first model to launch will be the all-new Volvo XC90, which will be unveiled in 2014.

[kennyc]

I'm thinkin' Bezos is almost as good at grabbing headlines as Miley is.

Bill chimes in for his share of the publicity: "Keep Dreaming you Dreamers!" - http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/2/51...drone-delivery

[silverraven]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcXoj_UBXv8
There is the 60 Minute Segment. Sorry if someone else has linked this already!
S

[MV64]

The actual method of delivery by drone isn't far-fetched. We have drones. But the problems and questions it raises are insane.

What about delivery jobs? Inclement weather? Like someone said, someone with a remote control drone can just track and steal the packages much easier than physically going there. Implications of the sky being clogged with drones?

And let's not forget that they might cause some kind of interference with NSA drones, and they won't allow that.

[sirmaru]

Originally Posted by MV64

The actual method of delivery by drone isn't far-fetched. We have drones. But the problems and questions it raises are insane.

What about delivery jobs? Inclement weather? Like someone said, someone with a remote control drone can just track and steal the packages much easier than physically going there. Implications of the sky being clogged with drones?

And let's not forget that they might cause some kind of interference with NSA drones, and they won't allow that.

It appears Google is developing Google Android Robots to deliver packages in Google Self Driving cars per this link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/04/te...pagewanted=all

Amazon already has competition now in the new delivery market apparently. In 5 years we may see the skys crowded with drones and the streets crowded with robots. We humans will have to squeeze in somehow.

This will definitely make it harder for the NSA to track our every move.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

This will definitely make it harder for the NSA to track our every move.

An optimist!!

http://cognitiveliberty.net/2013/mic...n-plain-sight/

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

How will they deliver to apartments and office buildings so the right person gets it. Perhaps they could land it on your balcony but how many office buildings have balconies?

Easy. The drone will have a hydraulic arm. It'll throw the package right through the window. You don't even need to open it. Afterward, the drone will automatically schedule a glazier.

Simple.

In short: No, I don't think we'll be seeing this in the next 4-5 years. It's too easy to lose packages. I can see people actually shooting those drones out of the sky. And, what if everybody starts doing this? We might have hundreds of drones flying around at all times.

Originally Posted by fjtorres

An optimist!!

http://cognitiveliberty.net/2013/mic...n-plain-sight/

"What? Lost the connection?"
- "Yeah, must be a bug in the drone that needs swatting... uh... wait..."

*Instant Rimshot*

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Easy. The drone will have a hydraulic arm. It'll throw the package right through the window. You don't even need to open it. Afterward, the drone will automatically schedule a glazier.

Simple.

In short: No, I don't think we'll be seeing this in the next 4-5 years. It's too easy to lose packages. I can see people actually shooting those drones out of the sky. And, what if everybody starts doing that? We might have hundreds of drones flying around at all times.

The wild west revisited. Imagine the advantages for drug dealers to use drones disguised as Amazon drones for delivery. Some of the windows will be pre-broken.

Helen

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

The wild west revisited. Imagine the advantages for drug dealers to use drones disguised as Amazon drones for delivery. Some of the windows will be pre-broken.

I don't think that this is too far fetched, actually. If Amazon is going to use droines, I'm sure there WILL be fake "Amazon" drones delivering not-so-legal stuff around.