[aldfig0]

Quote:

these bots will apparently be capable of delivering packages up to five pounds (86 percent of orders are apparently less than that), with the aim of getting them to your house in under half an hour.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/12/01/amazon-prime-air-drones/

My thoughts: They'll probably have some sort of tracking device in them so don't think you can shoot them down and get free stuff

. You'll probably instead just alert the police to your exact location.

 

[ssgtnubb]

Hmph, this is kinda badaz and yet scary at the same time. Would work well for me, have a distro center about 15 minutes down the road from my house.

 

[VanillaCena]

Wish the Chinese place down the street would do this too.

 

[HardwareDecoder]

WHAT THIS IS SICK

 

[179232]

What if you live in downtown San Francisco in an apartment?

Honestly I doubt this will ever be approved by the FAA. Manned copters sure, but not these.

 

[Captain1337]

My predictions for 2015 to 2020:
-UFO sightings will be on rise.
-Laws will be put in place to make us wear helmets at all times.
-People will file more lawsuits.
-Police will introduce their own little blue air drones.

Will these things collect all of the peoples private data and metadata as they move from one neighborhood to the other?

 

[junkerde]

nice, and the only thing you have to do is pay $100 to use the drone service, also the NSA put secret cameras on these.

 

[ZBoneCapone]

This is a crazy/awesome idea but I wonder about its viability.

Firstly, they will need to increase their distribution centers 10 fold in order make this available for a large portion of their customers. Here is a map of their current fulfillment centers:


Secondly, what is the cost? Perhaps this can replace their need to commission UPS/FedEx for deliveries and everything will be handled in house, but it probably won't be cheap and my guess is that cost will be passed along to the consumer, similarly the way Prime is now.

Finally, what kinds of things are people buying that they need their orders in half an hour? I think this is purely a convenience thing. I am a Prime subscriber and I love getting my stuff in two days, and I can't think of anything I've bought in the last year that I would need (hence paying the cost of Prime Air for) in half an hour.

I'm just playing devil's advocate here, as I love Amazon and think this would be really cool if done correctly

 

[candy_van]

Amazon has tons of cash to throw around, but managing their own logistics services is a huge undertaking - even if it's on limited ranges like this.
If a 3rd party isn't managing delivery from start-finish then they have to, and take liability for all the things that could go wrong (there are a ton) with these drones "in transit"

Of course that's aside from the whole feasibility issue itself here with having drones.

 

[Thorteris]

One of the best ideas i have seen in a while.

 

[Bloodbath]

If this became available in my area my credit card would be pleading for mercy!

 

[szeged]

this is awesome, i hope it works out for them. So long newegg.

 

[PiOfPie]

We will know we are in the end of days when I order a 50-pound full ATX chassis from Amazon and the drone displays a :| emoticon on its screen when it touches down on my porch.

 

[Maximillian-E]

If they have this avalible in my area, I'd even make a helipad in my backyard for it to land stuff on! Lights and all!

 

[dave12]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZBoneCapone

This is a crazy/awesome idea but I wonder about its viability.

Firstly, they will need to increase their distribution centers 10 fold in order make this available for a large portion of their customers. Here is a map of their current fulfillment centers:


Secondly, what is the cost? Perhaps this can replace their need to commission UPS/FedEx for deliveries and everything will be handled in house, but it probably won't be cheap and my guess is that cost will be passed along to the consumer, similarly the way Prime is now.

Finally, what kinds of things are people buying that they need their orders in half an hour? I think this is purely a convenience thing. I am a Prime subscriber and I love getting my stuff in two days, and I can't think of anything I've bought in the last year that I would need (hence paying the cost of Prime Air for) in half an hour.

I'm just playing devil's advocate here, as I love Amazon and think this would be really cool if done correctly

That map may just be where Amazon has their main fulfillment centers. If they are using the logistic services of Fedex and UPS like they used to then they have a mini center at every freight airport in the country. That would make this at least slightly more feasible.

 

[Usario]

Damn it. What if I shoot down a drone, thinking it to be the government trying to spy on/kill me, only to find out that it was Amazon trying to deliver my package? This is an outrage.

 

[Vlad7692]

I for one, welcome our new drone overlords.

 

[zooterboy]

Great publicity stunt, no way they're going to actually make this work.

 

[thatleftnut]

So exactly how much more is this shipping going to be compared to the other options?

 

[ZBoneCapone]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dave12

That map may just be where Amazon has their main fulfillment centers. If they are using the logistic services of Fedex and UPS like they used to then they have a mini center at every freight airport in the country. That would make this at least slightly more feasible.

Yes those are just fulfillment centers, but you make a good point. But I think the idea here is that they handle the entire delivery process from start to finish, essentially cutting out the middle man (UPS/FedEx in this case). There are a multitude of ways to go about it, but all of their products originate in their fulfillment centers and the only way to get your order to you in half an hour would be to start stocking products at UPS/FedEx locations, which would probably be even more difficult to manage, in my opinion.

I wonder if the "it'll be ready in 4-5 years" means "it'll be available for a large portion of our customers" or "We can go live with a small number of markets". The latter would mean any location within a thirty minute drone flight from their distribution centers. I haven't even mentioned the sheer number of drones they would need service people in any given area to guarantee the 30 min delivery time.
Quote:

On Nov. 26 [2012], Amazon sold 26.5 million items worldwide across all product categories. That equates to a whopping 306 items per second, a new record, according to the company.

Source
Obviously not all of those meet the under 5lbs restriction, but still, that is a ton of drone....