Get Your Shotguns Ready. Amazon Air Is Coming

JL 0513

Well-Known Member
There's a long discussion about this here...

http://www.browncafe.com/community/threads/amazon-to-deliver-via-drones.353749/

I still have my doubts about this. I know it CAN be done. It's just that there's so many things that will get in Amazons way. The potential problems involved will keep this illegal.

These problems include...

-Crowding air space
-Theft of drones, as well as their package
-Targeting drones
-The hacking of drones
-Malfunctioning drones falling to ground

If somehow Amazon succeeded in getting this legal, we UPSers have a problem. A large portion of our work force will be safe, but a good chunk of us would be gone. Think of the Amazon packages you handle each day. They are like 30-40% of my daily load.
 

soberups

Pees in the brown Koolaid
If somehow Amazon succeeded in getting this legal, we UPSers have a problem. A large portion of our work force will be safe, but a good chunk of us would be gone. Think of the Amazon packages you handle each day. They are like 30-40% of my daily load.

Drones have both limited range and limited payload. There is no technology that will be available in the forseeable future that would allow a drone to replace us.
 

soberups

Pees in the brown Koolaid
The article says that the drone can carry a payload of "up to 5 lbs"

That means one trip, one drop, then back to the center to reload/refuel.

I can see this as an extremely limited same day/on demand service for crowded urban areas.

I can also...maybe... visualize a future system involving a feeder-type truck with a driver who parks in a central location and spends the day "feeding" packages to multiple drones who make their drops and then return to the truck to reload/refuel.

The drones cant go indoors, they cant collect signatures, they cant do pickups and they cant handle large items, bulk stops or heavy packages. They also cannot function in excessively windy conditions. None of these limitations can be overcome by any technology that will be available in our lifetimes.
 

Harry Manback

Robot Extraordinaire
The article says that the drone can carry a payload of "up to 5 lbs"

That means one trip, one drop, then back to the center to reload/refuel.

I can see this as an extremely limited same day/on demand service for crowded urban areas.

I can also...maybe... visualize a future system involving a feeder-type truck with a driver who parks in a central location and spends the day "feeding" packages to multiple drones who make their drops and then return to the truck to reload/refuel.

The drones cant go indoors, they cant collect signatures, they cant do pickups and they cant handle large items, bulk stops or heavy packages. They also cannot function in excessively windy conditions. None of these limitations can be overcome by any technology that will be available in our lifetimes.

So what you're saying is, Upstate's daughter shouldn't expect her Bounty Double Ply rolls to land by r/c helicopter anytime soon, right?


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blkmamba

Well-Known Member
I would have to think the cost of having a drone deliver a package would be ridiculously expensive. Especially considering you have to pay people to pilot the drones. Seems way to costly to br worth it, otherwise ups would already be doing it.
 

soberups

Pees in the brown Koolaid
I would have to think the cost of having a drone deliver a package would be ridiculously expensive. Especially considering you have to pay people to pilot the drones. Seems way to costly to br worth it, otherwise ups would already be doing it.
Ultimately, the goal would be an unmanned drone that could utilize GPS technology. This is the only way that drones could ever represent any sort of a threat to our jobs. But even if the computer technology is eventually developed to safely fly and navigate the drone without human assistance, you are still running into the brick wall of power-to-weight ratio in terms of the drone being able to carry a meaningful amount of cargo. Having a greater lift capacity requires a more powerful motor...which weighs more than a small motor and uses more fuel...which adds even more weight and size to the equipment....which in turn requires even more power. I simply cannot imagine drone deliveries ever representing more than a miniscule percentage of our daily delivery volume.
 

728ups

All Trash No Trailer
By stating this, would you have a problem if someone stated that a racial term for a black person would have a field day stealing them bother you?
yawn.jpeg
 

scisector9

Well-Known Member
Drone shmone. Good luck Amazon. We are a very long way off from this. I think a self driving car or tractor trailer will come before drones. Only markets that would be affected would be the big cities and even then its not cost effective. I call bs PR stunt.

Cheers

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728ups

All Trash No Trailer
at the risk of offending white people,Rednecks et al I present Mr Jeff Foxworthy who has made a Kings Fortune on the phrase" You might be a Redneck" If the moderators find this racially offensive please remove it.
 
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