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Amazon's drone delivery program is the joke it always sounded like. (news.yahoo.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

244 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Only one item can be delivered at a time. It can’t weigh more than 5 pounds. It can’t be too big. It can’t be something breakable, since the drone drops it from 12 feet. The drones can’t fly when it is too hot or too windy or too rainy.

You need to be home to put out the landing target and to make sure that a porch pirate doesn’t make off with your item or that it doesn’t roll into the street (which happened once to Lord and Silverman). But your car can’t be in the driveway. Letting the drone land in the backyard would avoid some of these problems, but not if there are trees.

Amazon has also warned customers that drone delivery is unavailable during periods of high demand for drone delivery.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (10 children)

I live on the 10th story of an apartment building. Where does the drone deliver my 10 pound load to?

I live in a duplex with a front yard that's about two square feet between the front stoop and the sidewalk. Where does the drone deliver my 10 pound load to?

I live in a house surrounded by a lot of trees. Where does the drone deliver my 10 pound load to?

I have an enclosed front porch, inside of which deliveries can safely be left without worrying about them being stolen. Where does the drone deliver my 10 pound load to?

Drone delivery to someone's home might be useful for a small number of people in specific circumstances. Most circumstances would be far more efficient if done by a human.

What does this actually solve?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

In all of the above, where either the landlord or the recipient specifies (and when it's decided by the landlord, the buyer gets precise location info to pass to Amazon when buying stuff, which would include instructions for how to retrieve it after delivery)

In all cases the property owner would be responsible for ensuring there's a suitable landing location. Preferably combined with lockboxes which drones can directly deposit packages to.

I agree with the others that aerial drones is usually not the most efficient. But in some cases the destination is complicated to reach by foot and then they're useful. Otherwise land based drones could easily be used (imagine a Segway style delivery bot!)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

What problem does a drone delivering a package to a lockbox instead of a person doing it solve? Other than Amazon's problem of spending money to pay human beings wages?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

If it's a box/home easily reachable from the road, not much. In places with bad road infrastructure, it can save a fair amount of time

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

Ok, but that's not where they're testing it or what they appear to be trying to achieve. So that doesn't really apply to this specific program.

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