Look, Up in the Sky! It’s a Can of Soup!
news.yahoo.com
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Exactly a decade ago, Amazon revealed a program that aimed to revolutionize shopping and shipping. Drones launched from a central hub would waft through the skies delivering just about everything anyone could need. They would be fast, innovative, ubiquitous — all the Amazon hallmarks. The buzzy announcement, made by Jeff Bezos on “60 Minutes” as part of a Cyber Monday promotional package, drew global attention. “I know this looks like science fiction. It’s not,” said Bez

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.

  • RivalarrivalEnglish
    83·
    1 year ago

    Aerial drones are a particularly stupid method of delivery. Delivery trucks, combined with terrestrial delivery robots are a much more versatile approach.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
        27·
        1 year ago

        Delivery trucks require a human to drive.

        Ok… and? How is that a problem that needs solving?

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
                13·
                1 year ago

                All the time? I’d like to see the statistics on deaths caused by delivery drivers.

                And I’m not sure why you think similar things wouldn’t happen with drones.

                • hamms@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  3·
                  1 year ago

                  According to The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety:

                  A total of 4,714 people died in large truck crashes in 2021, a 17 percent increase compared with 2020. Sixteen percent of these deaths were truck occupants, 68 percent were occupants of cars and other passenger vehicles, and 15 percent were pedestrians, bicyclists or motorcyclists.

                  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
                    12·
                    1 year ago

                    Even in the rare occurrence that it were to fall out of the sky there’s very little chance it would hit anyone.

                    …unless it’s in a city.

                    And even in the exceptionally rare occurrence that it were to hit someone, they’re incredibly light and unlikely to cause serious damage, much less kill anyone.

                    …unless it’s a large drone carrying a heavy package.

                    If we’re going to replace delivery drivers with drones, they have to be able to carry more than a single five-pound item.

                • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  3·
                  1 year ago

                  How did you determine this? Also why are you assuming a job is in itself a good thing instead of what the job does being a good thing?

                  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
                    12·
                    1 year ago

                    Because the same farmer was plowing the same field.

                    And a job is better than no job in the Western world if you want to eat and have a roof over your head.

        • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          1 year ago

          Waste of resources. A human can do other things besides drive a van around all day. We spend all this money educating people. So they can do a job a person with a 3rd grade education can do?

          Been in automation a long time. Have personally witnessed the primary task of a worker being replaced by a bin.

          We should encourage anything that gets rid of mindless tasks and dehumanizes workers

            • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.worldEnglish
              21·
              1 year ago

              Find other work? I apologize the rest of the human race doesn’t want to subsidize your lifestyle of thinking as little as possible.

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
                12·
                1 year ago

                What other work? Do jobs just appear out of the ether for people with delivery experience on their resume?

                • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  1·
                  1 year ago

                  Truck driver? You know the most common job in the US. Do the people who you are advocating for know you have so little respect for their intelligence that you think they literally can do nothing else except drive a van around? I would be pretty insulted if someone was saying that my limitations were my current job.

                  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
                    11·
                    1 year ago

                    You need a different license to drive a big rig truck than you do a package delivery truck. They would have to be retrained. Amazon sure won’t pay for that. Who will?

                    And do you think trucking wouldn’t also get automated?

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
                12·
                1 year ago

                Maybe we should implement that first and fire all the delivery people second? But as long as Amazon saves money, that’s the important thing.