OK, so after numerous emails, texts & FB messages regarding the Amazon delivery drone Prime Air... I thought i would put a few things into perspective for those who where asking and might not know. If you havent seen it: amzn.to/18VPoYE To start things off... today has been known as Cyber Monday which would be a perfect opportunity for a large company to release something amazing for some good ol fashioned marketing... someone just got a well deserved pay raise at Amazon! Yes, its true that this technology is quite advanced and in theory is capable of doing such automated deliveries. Unfortunately however, theory is where it will stay for quite a long time. Now down to a couple geek facts: 1. Until there is a new form of light high discharge battery technology invented, the type of drone you saw in the video has an average flight time of 15 minutes and would fluctuate depending on the package weight. Therefore unless you would live within a 3-5km (and thats pushing it) radius of an Amazon supply factory... your shit out of luck. 2. These systems use very accurate GPS systems, however unless fitted with a very state of the art Infrared system such as cars that can park, stop and drive themselves, you still need to manoeuvre around obstacles manually. The FAQ section is a laugh in itself! Q: One day well see a fleet of Prime Air vehicles in the sky? A: Yes. One day, Prime Air vehicles will be as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road today. ...hahahaha... no, no you wont. I mean... Bring on Skynet! Q: How are you going to ensure public safety? A: The FAA is actively working on rules and an approach for unmanned aerial vehicles that will prioritize public safety. Safety will be our top priority, and our vehicles will be built with multiple redundancies and designed to commercial aviation standards. ...yes, security and safety will always be the biggest issue! There certainly are multiple redundancies that keep drones flying safe in the air while flying automated AND while being piloted by a trained operator, and thats a great thing!... but seeing as you cant travel on an airplane with a pair of nail scissors and without being personally scanned and strip searched, I highly doubt that you will ever see a legislation passed that will allow packages to be delivered by an AUTOMATED unmanned aerial vehicle. Drones or UAVs are awesome and are being used for some amazing ideas, some of those you might know about already and some you will blow your mind when you find out about them... but as for this type of package delivery... unfortunately not going happen. You only need to take a look at what happened just 4 days ago to get an understanding that this type of thing will never take off (pun intended). security-technologynews/news/uavs-used-to-make-jail-contraband-deliveries.html
Posted on: Mon, 02 Dec 2013 21:34:37 +0000