Amazon Prime Delivery Drones...

Ricardodaforce said:
Already a thread for drone discussion https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/the-general-drone-related-thread.606376/
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Yeah but that's more about the tech side....building....flying...photography uses.
This is about a possible consumer service.
I think a separate thread in the non-photography related section is fair enough, no? ;)

When I think about Amazon using drones to deliver, I just think of the air filled with the little buggers, and all the (enter courier name here) drivers weeping in their vans :lol:
 
Personally I doubt it. Too many airspace issues, safety concerns (both real and perceived) and a fair few legal issues. Not to mention you need to increase the range dramatically. Say the best batteries last 30 minutes in one now (thats generous) the that gives you 15 miles range there and back to base ( I guess thats over come able by driving stuff to the nearest delivery point, and flying from there, but whats the point?). Theres also the issue of weight, any heavy package is going to be difficult to lift, they haven't that much capability) My phantom 2 is pretty much at limit with gimbal and go pro on it. You'd struggle with say a 2kg parcel
 
viv1969 said:
When I think about Amazon using drones to deliver, I just think of the air filled with the little buggers, and all the (enter courier name here) drivers weeping in their vans :LOL:
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Or pointing air rifles/catapults/chucking bricks into the sky :)
 
PaulF said:
Or pointing air rifles/catapults/chucking bricks into the sky :)
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Curiously, when a couple of guys were doing an aerial survey on a landfill that I was working on, the drone got mobbed by a couple of hundred gulls,
I had to put the Gyr x Saker in the air to chase them away ....

Hmmm business opportunity ... follow drones and keep gulls / corvids from mobbing it :D
 
They have been toying with idea for a number of years now.

I think we are still a way off it becoming a reality, if does at all.
 
Not sure that current UK regulations would allow them to be used over here.
 
Nod said:
Not sure that current UK regulations would allow them to be used over here.
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There is no need for any uncertainty - these most definitely would not be legal in UK (or US or EASA) airspace. And that is just the first of about 5000 reasons why this will never actually happen, and is basically just an Amazon PR story to achieve column inches. (In fact it's at least the third time they have run the story in as many years - I'm surprised that the media still run with it).
 
Nod said:
Not sure that current UK regulations would allow them to be used over here.
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You've already supplied the answer in the statement. The regulations can be and will be changed.

Amazon is a major globalist company and they will lobby to change the regulations, or even better - get an exemption so that only they can use the tech for economic advantage.
 
I actually can see it happening for smaller items, I'd wager the vast majority of amazons parcels are small sub 2kg, the technology is limited right now, but in a couple of years who knows where the tech will have moved on to

And if the can prove the tech to be reliable I see no reason that it couldn't be put into service, ultimately laws can be changed, licences can be created...I could see companies like Amazon, Google etc being able to bid for a limited number of licences in the same way the mobile companies had to buy 3G licences a decade or so ago
 
MWHCVT said:
the technology is limited right now, but in a couple of years who knows where the tech will have moved on
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The main issue isn't the technology, it isn't even the regulatory hurdles that make drone deliveries impracticable, although both these are not insignificant. It isn't even the likely high "attrition rate" as they are shot out of the sky and the parcels stolen especially if they are small and high value (iPhone or DSLR anyone? - £50 for cash - no questions asked). The fact that they cannot fly in rain or with wind speeds in excess of approximately 18mph isn't the main hurdle either (although poor Eglwyswrw in West Wales would recently have gone 83 days without a delivery!). No, the overwhelming reason why this is not going to happen is that it does not fit in at all with Amazon's highly centralized business model of only a few highly efficient distribution centres. The current range of drones would mean that unless you live within 5 or so miles of Swansea or Peterborough or the other six UK fulfillment centres it's not feasible. Battery technology is improving all the time, but expanding the useful radius to 10 or 20 miles for a load carrying drone of any capacity is still some way away. Compared to road based parcel delivery it is also going to be prohibitively expensive. White van man and Postman Pat don't need to worry yet!

As I previously alluded to - the story is just a regular PR stunt from Amazon.
 
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