Amazon Begins Testing Drone Deliveries in California, Texas (pcmag.com) 40
Amazon is now trialing drone deliveries in new California and Texas locations. From a report: David Carbon, VP of Prime Air Amazon, announced the "careful first steps" in a Christmas Eve LinkedIn post. "First deliveries from our new sites in TX and CA," he wrote. Carbon posted a photo of an airborne drone carrying an Amazon box at the end of a nearly invisible tether. No further details were revealed.
Nearly a decade in the making, Amazon's air drone delivery service is finally set to reach US customers. Once onboarded, local shoppers can place orders for Prime Air-eligible items as normal, then wait for the unmanned aerial vehicle to drop them off -- literally. The self-flying drones are capable of evading objects like chimneys and other aircraft while flying up to 50mph and carrying packages that weigh as much as 5 pounds. Amazon's drones ferry each shipment to the customer's backyard, where they hover at a safe distance before releasing the package on the ground.
Nearly a decade in the making, Amazon's air drone delivery service is finally set to reach US customers. Once onboarded, local shoppers can place orders for Prime Air-eligible items as normal, then wait for the unmanned aerial vehicle to drop them off -- literally. The self-flying drones are capable of evading objects like chimneys and other aircraft while flying up to 50mph and carrying packages that weigh as much as 5 pounds. Amazon's drones ferry each shipment to the customer's backyard, where they hover at a safe distance before releasing the package on the ground.
Beware of falling packages! (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:1)
Re:Beware of falling packages! (Score:5, Informative)
That's not true at all. The fracture threshold of a human skull is 14-70 joules (source: https://www.walshmedicalmedia.... [walshmedicalmedia.com]). A 2 kg (5 pound) package would have energy of .5*m*v^2. It will reach that threshold at 3-8 m/s. Which if being accelerated by gravity at 9.8m/s^2, it will reach pretty quickly. And of course its worse if you get hit by a corner, concentrating the area of impact. So yes, its totally possible for a 5 pound weight dropped from 1-2 stories up to fracture your skull. And a fracture isn't the only possible injury- laceration and concussion can happen at much lower thresholds.
Re: (Score:2)
You forget that the package is not stiff. It is a bit of a difference whether a 2.5kg cardboard box with packaging material around its contents falls on you or a steel box of the same weight.
Re: (Score:2)
I'd like to see what they plan to do about malfunctioning drones that suddenly drop on people's heads/cars/dogs. Even a 99.9% success rate is gonna drop a lotta hardware on us all.
I expect it'll be roughly the same as when the Amazon truck crashes into your car, the courier hits your dog when flinging the package onto your porch, etc. They file a claim with their insurance, you get paid for damages, and they keep doing business as usual.
Re: (Score:2)
I expect it'll be roughly the same as when the Amazon truck crashes into your car
Indeed. Amazon delivery vans kill about a dozen people per year, and that's a total non-issue.
The drones are much lighter and use brushless motors that are extremely reliable.
They will be delivering to backyards rather than moving on busy streets.
This will be a win for safety.
Re: (Score:2)
Probably the same thing cargo airlines do about their aircraft suddenly dropping on people's heads.
I predict that the issues will mostly be about the choice of landing zone, and the probability of the family dog deciding to stand in the middle of it and bark at the drone.
Re: (Score:2)
I doubt that Amazon drones will have as good of a safety record as the highly regulated airplanes.
Re: (Score:2)
The FAA has rules (Part 107) for commercial sUAS flight; they’re legally considered aircraft. (other parts might apply if they get big enough)
But, yes, they’re regulated, and the FAA has little sense of humor when they hand out 10k, 40k, 100k+ USD fines for messing around before finding out.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not worried about that but my 120lb German Shepard will tear apart anything dropped in my back yard and that is a fact. For that matter, he'll destroy their drone if they get low enough to safely drop the package.
Can we opt for a different drop location? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
For those of us who have stupid dogs that love to destroy everything within reach?
You can select the drop point, or you can opt-out of drone delivery.
This isn't being forced on anyone.
Re: (Score:2)
I can't see this ever really being cost competitive. I mean, if you're limited to 5 lbs then that severely restricts what you can ship with this. However, if its capable of seating multiple packages within that 5 lb limit, there are quite a few things normally delivered by Amazon which this would be well suited to... but even then to be practical you'd really need to have probably about 25 packages at minimum per flight for it to be feasible, because otherwise you're spending too much time going back and fo
Re: (Score:2)
People seem to buy a lot of small, light items from Amazon - particularly frequent users. and they have distribution centers everywhere there are major population centers.
It wouldn't surprise me if half (or more) of their orders would qualify for the service. I don't have the figures, but Amazon does, and they've certainly looked at them.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, people do buy a lot of small, light items, but they don't have nearly as many distribution centers as you think, and the majority of outgoing vanloads do not comprise small, light items. Amazon certainly has the data, but that doesn't mean they've looked at it, nor that they understood it. Amazon has a very long-standing competency problem in its upper management, and I have little doubt that this latest gimmick was driven by the fevered dream that this might somehow allow them to replace large swaths
Re: (Score:2)
To me, their competency issues are in a different league than (for example) Facebook's. I wouldn't expect Amazon to plow ahead with a division that would fail on something as basic as not having enough applicable orders. Other problems might well exist, but not that. Something less obvious.
Re: (Score:2)
if you're limited to 5 lbs then that severely restricts what you can ship with this.
A quick Google search for "percent of amazon packages under five pounds" says that 86% of Amazon packages are under five pounds.
Re: (Score:2)
There are two things to note here:
This still reads like someone's pie-in-the-sky effort to eliminate drivers where they didn't fully think things through and/or are hoping they can find ways to make it work anyway. You may still en
Dropped into backyard ... (Score:2)
Amazon's drones ferry each shipment to the customer's backyard, where they hover at a safe distance before releasing the package on the ground.
Wonder what's going to happen if/when that tether breaks and that 5lb box going 50mph lands on someone's head or a car windshield or gets flung into a house window or onto the freeway ... Something will ensue, probably not hilarity.
Re: (Score:2)
Wonder what's going to happen if/when that tether breaks and that 5lb box going 50mph lands on someone's head or a car windshield
People will say, "Jeez. It's a good thing that wasn't the brake cable failing on a four-ton delivery van."
Re: (Score:2)
Wonder what's going to happen if/when that tether breaks and that 5lb box going 50mph lands on someone's head or a car windshield or gets flung into a house window or onto the freeway ... Something will ensue, probably not hilarity.
Suppose the tether doesn't break? Suppose instead it wraps itself around some nearby power lines? Suppose the drone can't ditch the tether? Hilarity ensues.
Target Practice (Score:2)
Plenty will get shot down by crazy rednecks here in Texas. You can bank on that.
Re: (Score:1)
Don't think that won't happen here in CA either.
Given this and all other considerations, I just don't see how this is a viable delivery platform.
Best way to take down a drone (Score:1)
It might be more fun with your Mini-14, XM8, or 1911A but the best way is a garden hose with one of those pistol grip spray heads attached. You can easily hit something forty feet away and once you get enough water on those propellers, it will lose altitude and you can blast it further. At some point it will fail and enter free-fall, making it easy to retrieve whatever is left of the soaked and smashed package.
Re: (Score:1)
For something flying I would prefer my 12G. My aim isn't what it used to be and the pellet spread can make up for it. LOL
I do like your idea for soaking the mechanical seagull. Sounds like it might damage the electronics though. I don't know much about RC-anything, but, maybe something that spews the "land" command at it? Free hardware? I dunno.. You'all know more about this than I do...
If we are going technical (Score:1)
Can we make model rockets into homebrew backyard SAMs? Could probably use an old microwave oven for radar, then lock on heat signature.
Re: (Score:1)
Great idea. >D I think it might be possible to modify that system to also keep a camera focused on the target, grab some video of the results, post it to YouTube. It'd probably get banned, but, they're not the only game in town. LOL
Joking aside, this is /. Someone with no sense of humor has probably already contacted the FBI over these posts. -rolls eyes-
Re: (Score:2)
Probably more illegal; they’re aircraft under law, so the FAA will be involved.
It’s really just going to be a matter of “how major of a felony” though.
EMP guns ready! (Score:2)
Based on the subject line (Score:3)
This seems to me to very much be a case of.. (Score:1)
..free drones !
Someone will post up on the interwebz how to make a cheap and effective drone catcher and then it's all over for Amazon (and anyone else who tries it).
Noise Pollution Restrictions Please! (Score:3)
Before it's too late, we need to introduce noise pollution laws/regulations around this, it not ban it out right.
Road noise and yard crews are bad enough, let's not introduce 100s of drones buzzing around.
I shouldn't be able to hear or see the drone until it's over the location at which it needs to descend, and only for a limited number of seconds or minutes (2-3 minutes MAX).
If you want all things very close by and noisy, go live closer to urban centers.
So, there isn't a California, TX? (Score:2)
Flytrex (Score:2)
Israeli startup Flytrex has been operating in the US since 2020. It seems that Amazonâ(TM)s resources did not quite help it be the first to get an FAA license.
For anyone worried about drones dropping on their heads: you should be more concerned about that delivery guy driving a two ton vehicle through your street, and this is reflected in much lower insurance rate.