https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/30/24167776/amazon-prime-air-delivery-drones-faa-bvlos-approval
Amazon drones are granted Beyond Visual Line of Sight.
This community likes to link to the most cancerous news sites.
Try this instead https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/30/24167776/amazon-prime-air-delivery-drones-faa-bvlos-approval
Pretty exciting, I just wish it was someone other than Amazon doing it.
I cannot see how Amazon expects to profit on this. Seems wildly expensive/complex and I'd rather wait than pay more for shipping.
Oh! Still not sure that'll pan out, but I'm sure smarter people than me are working the Excel sheets.
And on top of which, these are definitely noisy nuisances, and as a result people are gonna fuck with them, and it's inevitable that eventually it's gonna hurt someone, which'll cause a huge backlash and expensive lawsuits, etc etc etc.
The only situation i can see these being even potentially viable is in very rural areas, where delivery routes are expensive, people have lots of open land for it to safely reach the ground, and there aren't a lot of nearby neighbors to annoy
And in rural areas, it'll be called "skeet shooting with prizes". I know exactly what my redneck neighbors are like...
"Leroy! One of them Amazon critters is coming! Bring your shotgun! Last time we gots that airpad thingy, let's see what this one brings"
Not that most tech will actually work after you fill it with birdshot and let it fall from the sky, but hey, at least it's fun
I mean, if I could order some random stuff and have it delivered by drone in less than an hour even if it's 1am then that's pretty great.
I’m sure all the neighbors will be stoked being awoken by a drone at 1 am 😂
Personally, I prefer a quiet neighborhood over faster delivery.
So this means regular people are allowed to legally fly drones without line of sight too now.. Right? (bet it doesn't) :padme meme:
Given how the "shop and walk out" process worked, they'll probably outsource it to people paid to throw packages on parachutes over your fence while they make a buzzing noise.
The noise complaints and landing safety issues are definitely a problem, but the cost savings potential and sustainability/safety effects of taking delivery trucks (or your car to the mall) off the road is a huge win.
I can see how noise and landing safety issues delivering to your property can really stall this. However, landing to an approved and managed community mailbox (or rooftop delivery zone in dense areas) might avoid some of those issues.
There's still the issue of birds, which do not like these things in their airspace and, depending on the size, will absolutely either attack drones or be maimed by them. Also, helicopters and small planes often fly quite low. We haven't had a great record with autonomous cars, but sure, let's try autonomous flying drones. What could go wrong?
The big issue with autonomous cars are the other cars that are driven by humans. As well as pedestrians and general rules of the road that need to be applied.
In theory drones have problems that are much easier to solve, because there's just less obstacles to deal with.
The big issues will likely be birds, wind, and rain.
I didn't know they were still doing this. I remember jokes in Parks and Rec about this forever ago.