Anyone else bothered by this...

That is so COOL!

Honey! I’m!... SLASH HEADS FALLS OFF ROLLS TOWARD DOOR STEP Wife get’s a text, “Your Package Has Arrived At Your Door Steps. Thank You For Shopping Amazon.Com- AMAZON, SMILEY FACE”

I’m optimistic. What part bothers you exactly? This isn’t some government conspiracy stuff, it’s just a new possible business model.

What about all the bicycle riders? When they came for the old “I Did Nothing” when they came for the lame “I Did Nothing” when they came for the sick, lazy, unemployed the handicapped “I Did Nothing” Now they are coming for me! Who will do something?
Bloody Luddites!

They will no doubt be automated, so in the long run, thousands of people will lose their jobs to drones.
-1
Rednecks will shoot them down, thinking that they are obamaspydrones
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They will collide with trees, birds, debris, each other, destroying the cargo upon the inevitable impact
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they will be stolen once they land
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the rotors will seriously injure a lot of people when they try to retrieve the cargo/upon take-off and landing
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will not work during bad weather/storms
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can only transport one package at a time
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package size/weight limited by drone’s lift and size
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limited range
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-9/10, would not bang

Am I the only one who enjoys the anticipation of a package arriving? 30 minutes? Talk about instant gratification. That takes all the fun out of it. I can’t imagine ever needing something so urgently.

What bothers me about drones is that it looks like they are going to be everywhere all of the time. Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no its just another bunch of freaking drones. If they are not delivering packages they will be spying on us for one reason or another.

My first thought was also of injury to people with those exposed propellers. Hopefully they’ll redesign the drones before they ever get put to use.

-10
they will be perfect cover for actual government spy drones

-10/10 would kill

I saw this on 60 Minutes last night.

The first thing I thought was that they would be stolen as soon as they land or someone would throw a rock at them while they are in the sky. Then they will steal the drone and the package.

@ragingloli pretty much summed up my feelings on the whole matter. I don’t think they will be stolen when they land per say since that isn’t really a problem as is(and if you’re getting this 30 min delivery I’d imagine you’re home) but I do think quite a few will be taken out of the sky.

@Blackberry Says who? I mean really, wouldn’t be the first time corporation in this country has done stuff to help the government spy on it’s people…

I am not impressed.

Call me when they can just tele-port the shit like on Star Trek.
(Ten SECONDS or less…..NOW we’re gettin’ somewhere….)

Jeff Bezos is the one guy in America who is actually thinking creatively about things. This is a clever approach to a real issue, and he has the smarts to have developed it and the money to make it happen.

We need more big ideas and we need more Jeff Bezoses.

Whether this particular idea works or not (and I doubt it will), I have all sorts of kudos to Bezos for the creativity. There will always be nay-sayers and Luddites. But keep thinking the big ideas, Jeff.

Looks good to me.

Anything that gets that electronic gadget I ordered to me faster works for me.

Neat idea. If there were not a bunch of crazy psyhcopaths in this world then I would say go for it Amazon. Also think of all the people waiting to injure themselves with the drone so they can sue for big bucks. This kind of thing is not feasible in the world we live in.

*psychopaths

I think it will put delivery people out of work, is a security issue, and it’s still not as cool as the Jetson’s pressure-tube or Star Trek’s instant food computer. Not impressed, sorry.

Thanks @ragingloli didn’t proofread lol

Ideal weapon delivers. When there lots of them, which ones will be authentic?

Egads you people are paranoid.

You can deliver bombs through FedEx, too, you know. And if you’ve ever had a remote control helicopter, you’ll know it’s harder than you think to hurt yourself on the blades. I’m fairly certain they won’t be made of razor wire.

Look, if your box is ticking or smells like napalm, don’t open it. Same rules as your normal doorstep drop off service.

@Seek_Kolinahr – There was recently a fatality from an RC Copter

@hearkat – Yesterday, a woman died in a collision with a UPS truck.

@tom_g – My link was just in response to Seek’s comment that it is hard to hurt oneself on the propellers. I would be somewhat less concerned if there were a ring around the propellers in the Amazon drone prototypes, like I have seen on some of these flying toys.

Hundreds of fatal motor vehicle accidents happen every day. The difference is that there is someone in the vehicle seeing the immediate environment and responding to it – yet we still have millions of accidents. For remotely operated drones with the human operator at a range up to 10 miles away, how can the operator be completely aware of the random events that can happen in the environment in which they’re flying?

@hearkat: “For remotely operated drones with the human operator at a range up to 10 miles away, how can the operator be completely aware of the random events that can happen in the environment in which they’re flying?”

Are these controlled by a human? If so, then sure, we’ll be dealing with the same type of possible issues we have as driving. I was under the impression that these were automated. I apologize – I didn’t actually look into these. They’re concept devices. We won’t see these for some time, and when we do, they’ll be unrecognizable.

But remember – when you take the human element out of driving a vehicle, you improve safety (self-driving cars). So, if/when these things get to that stage, we should be ok.

I’m not terribly excited about this Amazon drone thing, because like I said, it’s all concept. But I also don’t see any reason to get worried about this idea.

@hearkat – People choke to death on ballpoint pens. I’m not saying it’s impossible, as you can’t account for the idiocy of people, but I’m pretty sure “Stay away from the box until the robot leaves” is pretty easy for most people to pick up. The ones that can’t grasp that concept, frankly, I won’t mourn the loss of too much.

I’m not just concerned about humans… wildlife – especially birds – could easily collide with these drones.

Self-driving cars are safer than human drivers? How has that been proven? What country or even city has 100% of vehicles running the equivalent amount of traffic in fully automated vehicles to show fully prove the safety of automated systems? What about when deer or squirrels dart out in front of an automated vehicle?

@hearkat – Google has been running these things for 3 years (and 400,000+ miles) without accident on public roads, and we’re only in the early stages.

What about deer and squirrels? This is exactly what a “driverless” car would help with.

Humans are the problem when it comes to one of the most dangerous activities – driving.

Birds avoid other birds all the time. That’s a non-issue.

Supposedly they’re using them for recovery in the Phillipines now.

I don’t know, I guess I just don’t want to see the little thing’s buzzing around the neighborhood blocking my view of paradise. Rednecks will shoot them down, I’m sure, so they better have cameras…lol

^ Nimby.

@Seek_Kolinahr Maybe so, but it isn’t 2100 yet and I’m going to appreciate the natural quiet and beauty as long as I can, while it’s still available.

Oh! This just occurred to me:

Does anyone know how these things are powered?

How much will this reduce greenhouse gas emissions, assuming they will amount to fewer UPS, FedEx and Lasership vehicles on the road?

@tom_g – I know the Google driverless cars have been run safely thus far, but not in the mass numbers of human-controlled vehicles (such as getting millions of people in and out of a city during rush hour or driving thousands of them to their beach getaway on a Friday night, or getting people to the airport on time for their Thanksgiving homecoming), so I don’t feel that the data is truly representative of real-world situations just yet. Airplanes have had auto-pilot features for years… why do we still use human pilots and co-pilots?

@Seek_Kolinahr – Birds avoid other birds, you say… but they hit cars and airplanes, and even buildings, fairly often.

@hearcat: “Airplanes have had auto-pilot features for years… why do we still use human pilots and co-pilots?”

I don’t know. Not sure if anyone knows…

“All of which raises the question of why we need pilots at all. Most of the flying in commercial aircraft is already done by computer; when accidents occur in modern aircraft, it’s usually the result of human error, rather than mechanical failure. Will flying a jet soon be one of those activities, like horseback riding and sailing, that were once vital military skills but now are pastimes for the rich?”

I suspect we will not want to lose the power, so we will demand less-safe modes of transportation.

You’re right, @hearkat

Let’s stop driving cars, living in buildings, and flying in airplanes because birds might fly into them.

@tom_g: Time will tell, I suppose. Computers and sensors fail, humans fail. Nothing is perfect.
@Seek_Kolinahr: Please don’t put words in my mouth… I was simply considering whether having a book delivered to my home might also result in shredded blue jay on the lawn, and wondering who’s going to clean it up.
– As for your question about ecological benefits, they’d have to calculate the additional distances the drones would travel, since they only carry up to 10 pounds at a time, so they’d be flying back-and-forth to the warehouse numerous times, whereas the delivery trucks can carry large quantities and more weight, and are dispatched to a route to deliver multiple packages… I’d be curious to see the efficiency differences. For example, I often order multiple items from drugstore.com (free shipping, and they have all the products I use, whereas no one local store carries everything, so it saves me from running all over the region to stock my health and beauty supplies), and I think UPS carries up to 50lb. boxes with the free shipping, so what fits in one box now would require 5 boxes and 5 drone trips.

@ both of you: I have just been suggesting possible problems with the drones as shown in the pictures about the Amazon delivery proposal. I’m simply playing devil’s advocate here… I am not opposed to the concept, I am only hoping that they will find a way to do it safely and efficiently.