Amazon testing delivery by drone, CEO tells 60 Minutes

[ugksam]

cool, i love technology that takes jobs away from humans

 

[Brown_Pride]

So in decades the US Sky will be full of drones ? It will be far much easier to have surveillance drones this way and people will complain but they'll reply "you already have delivery drones, is it bad ?"
I'm not really feeling the future.

I suspect someone will have to "fly" the drones so they will have cameras, what will happen next is the FBI will call in a delivery to your house, then subpoena the video footage, or like google earth, amazon will have a wide array of "eyes in the sky" meaning all the gov needs to do is "request" the video logs.

RIP freedom of privacy. Usher out on the wings of "economic progress".

 

[ill]

I suspect someone will have to "fly" the drones so they will have cameras, what will happen next is the FBI will call in a delivery to your house, then subpoena the video footage, or like google earth, amazon will have a wide array of "eyes in the sky" meaning all the gov needs to do is "request" the video logs.

RIP freedom of privacy. Usher out on the wings of "economic progress".

I disagree that someone will be remote controlling these. Thats why I don't think this is feasible in this decade. The only successful way to manifest this idea is to create a secure wireless network where each drone is tied into and their flight paths are automated by computers to create efficiency and order in the chaos. This would require the FAA mandating a certain altitude that these "service" drones would fly at. I just think the infrastructure needs for this project are too far fetched for the current time to successfully launch this program.

 

[Brown_Pride]

I disagree that someone will be remote controlling these. Thats why I don't think this is feasible in this decade. The only successful way to manifest this idea is to create a secure wireless network where each drone is tied into and their flight paths are automated by computers to create efficiency and order in the chaos. This would require the FAA mandating a certain altitude that these "service" drones would fly at. I just think the infrastructure needs for this project are too far fetched for the current time to successfully launch this program.

I'd say that's the end game, but the transitional period will require people flying them. Either way the camera will be there for "security" or some other BS reason. Ultimately there will be eyes in the sky and they wont even belong to the government. If there's one thing the past 10 years have shown us it's that the US is outsourcing a lot of its dirt and getting support in one of two ways.
FEAR or "capitalism"

 

[Vandelay]

I'd say that's the end game, but the transitional period will require people flying them. Either way the camera will be there for "security" or some other BS reason. Ultimately there will be eyes in the sky and they wont even belong to the government. If there's one thing the past 10 years have shown us it's that the US is outsourcing a lot of its dirt and getting support in one of two ways.
FEAR or "capitalism"

Its not cost effective for someone to fly them...these things carry one package. They can just continue to do what they do now for all that.

Realistically we probably won't see this until about 2020.

 

[ill]

I'd say that's the end game, but the transitional period will require people flying them. Either way the camera will be there for "security" or some other BS reason. Ultimately there will be eyes in the sky and they wont even belong to the government. If there's one thing the past 10 years have shown us it's that the US is outsourcing a lot of its dirt and getting support in one of two ways.
FEAR or "capitalism"

Yeah, I do agree that there will be a lot of private eyes in the sky in the future. I respectfully disagree on any human ever flying them. To be profitable, it has to be automated and ran by computers. Whats the point in paying someone even minimum wage to fly these drones when you can ship the same item for far cheaper with FedEx/UPS? The cool factor will always get outweighed by the economics of it. I just don't see any financially feasible way that humans would be flying these things. I'm sure there will be people in the operations room making sure every things going ok but no human will be remotely flying these for delivery. Just not logical outside of the testing phase.

 

[rapbeats]

nikkas are going to shoot these things down and get free ipods.

i wouldnt advise of this. my wife said the same thing "nuccas in the hood will just shoot them down."

i said you do that. and you go from delivery unarmed drones to delivery ARMED drones accidentally shooting people.

 

[Vandelay]

Yeah, I do agree that there will be a lot of private eyes in the sky in the future. I respectfully disagree on any human ever flying them. To be profitable, it has to be automated and ran by computers. Whats the point in paying someone even minimum wage to fly these drones when you can ship the same item for far cheaper with FedEx/UPS? The cool factor will always get outweighed by the economics of it. I just don't see any financially feasible way that humans would be flying these things. I'm sure there will be people in the operations room making sure every things going ok but no human will be remotely flying these for delivery. Just not logical outside of the testing phase.

Yep...and to take it another level...we may actually begin to see all transportation vehicles graduate to becoming fully automated so that the network or grid that all of these automated machines operate efficiently for maximum traffic flow and minimal accidents.

 

[rapbeats]

Yeah, I do agree that there will be a lot of private eyes in the sky in the future. I respectfully disagree on any human ever flying them. To be profitable, it has to be automated and ran by computers. Whats the point in paying someone even minimum wage to fly these drones when you can ship the same item for far cheaper with FedEx/UPS? The cool factor will always get outweighed by the economics of it. I just don't see any financially feasible way that humans would be flying these things. I'm sure there will be people in the operations room making sure every things going ok but no human will be remotely flying these for delivery. Just not logical outside of the testing phase.

there's no need to fly them when you have gps. only thing you need is a few people in a room somewhere monitoring the drones. making sure they are not malfunctioning. making sure they are receiving correct gps signals and not going off course.

 

[rapbeats]

Yep...and to take it another level...we may actually begin to see all transportation vehicles graduate to becoming fully automated so that the network or grid that all of these automated machines operate efficiently for maximum traffic flow and minimal accidents.

this will happen. bye bye to "opening up" your brand new sports car on the road. you will be forced to take it to a track for that. but truth be told isnt that the safest way to do things ?

 

[Brown_Pride]

Its not cost effective for someone to fly them...these things carry one package. They can just continue to do what they do now for all that.

Realistically we probably won't see this until about 2020.

good point.

I'd be curious if the "automation" technology is there then. More thinking about it amazon uses a traditional "ground" carry right now, in order to set this up they'd have to create the infrastructure from the ground up, which would be crazy expensive...unless these craft are super cheap, easy to maintain and don't break down a lot I don't see this being feasible...yet. I could be completely wrong...at least not in AZ. Maybe in smaller towns but not here in AZ or Cali for that matter. Places that are to far spread out ONE package at a time doesn't make sense.

Maybe they'd deliver several packages? THat's the only way this would be possible.

From where the Amazon wharehouse is in Phoenix to my door is something like 20 miles one way. That's a 40 mile round trip for ONE package...

 

[Vandelay]

good point.

I'd be curious if the "automation" technology is there then. More thinking about it amazon uses a traditional "ground" carry right now, in order to set this up they'd have to create the infrastructure from the ground up, which would be crazy expensive...unless these craft are super cheap, easy to maintain and don't break down a lot I don't see this being feasible...yet. I could be completely wrong...at least not in AZ. Maybe in smaller towns but not here in AZ or Cali for that matter. Places that are to far spread out ONE package at a time doesn't make sense.

Maybe they'd deliver several packages? THat's the only way this would be possible.

From where the Amazon wharehouse is in Phoenix to my door is something like 20 miles one way. That's a 40 mile round trip for ONE package...

It will probably only be an expensive express option and only cover a 25 mile radius. They want to sell everything so imagine ordering a part for a medical procedure or to complete some kind of science experiment, or last minute wedding change...it will probably be something like $500-$1000 for a trip and won't come down in price or scale up in volume until Amazon can make it cheaper...so realistically it may be until 2025-2030 until you see these things in the sky on a regular basis.

UPS, had/has an option to have items delivered within 8 hours anywhere in the country. Essentially they just bought a plane ticket and put the package on the plane. It cost about a G the last time I checked. It was for transplants and the like. I used to work for UPS, I never saw anyone use it in 8 years working at one of their busiest air hubs.

 

[Czar]

[In the year 2025]

*Orders the new Iphone 11S, with 4.5 inch screen and 1.5 GHz processor*

*Chooses drone delivery*

[30 minutes pass]

*See's drone flying overhead with box*

*See's drone initiate operation kill-a-negro*

*

 

[NSSVO]

i wouldnt advise of this. my wife said the same thing "nuccas in the hood will just shoot them down."

i said you do that. and you go from delivery unarmed drones to delivery ARMED drones accidentally shooting people.

lol never

 

[rapbeats]

It will probably only be an expensive express option and only cover a 25 mile radius. They want to sell everything so imagine ordering a part for a medical procedure or to complete some kind of science experiment, or last minute wedding change...it will probably be something like $500-$1000 for a trip and won't come down in price or scale up in volume until Amazon can make it cheaper...so realistically it may be until 2025-2030 until you see these things in the sky on a regular basis.

UPS, had/has an option to have items delivered within 8 hours anywhere in the country. Essentially they just bought a plane ticket and put the package on the plane. It cost about a G the last time I checked. It was for transplants and the like. I used to work for UPS, I never saw anyone use it in 8 years working at one of their busiest air hubs.

part of the reason people wouldnt think to use the 8 hour ship. is because they cant believe it will really arrive in 8 hrs. its similar to the different express ships you can choose when ordering online. you choose regular ground or express. you will find out a lot of times that regular ground is just as fast. which makes people leary about trying some higher priced express shipment. cause imagine if you dropped a grand on it and it came in 24 hours instead of 8. you could've saved 100's and just did an overnight ship. thats how people think about it. now you working at UPS may say different. maybe 8 hrs really means 8 hrs period.