How do you feel about the prospect of drone delivery?

I think that the porch pirates will up the anti by having futuristic drones robbing the legit drones. Or assassinations?

I am also intrigued by the concept of drone delivery. Hopefully will lower prices, and faster deliveries.

I’m fine with it.

Makes me very nervous until some time has passed to see how it goes.

I look forward to people shooting them down for loot, like in a video game.

I’m fine with it.

I guess the problem with it is drones also invading people’s privacy if while delivering it is also taking photos and videos.

I fell like this is another situation where laws to protect the citizenry might be far behind the technology and usage.

The problem with drones is that they can only deliver one package at a time, with a weight limit to boot, so there would have to be thousands of them filling the sky even in smaller towns, whereas with regular delivery a van can just fill up and deliver them along a route.
And drones will not ring your doorbell either.
I expect package theft to skyrocket.

@ragingloli Makes sense. Maybe it is good for more remote areas? How far can they fly? Also, doesn’t weather need to be fairly perfect to not risk them crashing?

To focus on the scale of package delivery, there were over 4 billion packages delivered in 2023 in Germany alone.
can you imagine what the sky would look like if they were to be all delivered via drone?
Like it was filled with swarms of robotic locusts.

@ragingloli the delivery guys (including Amazon people) never ring doorbells where I live.

^me either.

I rarely order from Amazon so I don’t remember if they ring my doorbell. I am pretty sure UPS and Fedex ring my doorbell.

Amazon uses FedEx and UPS to ship their orders.

In my area, we don’t have any package thefts. Our Amazon is delivered by Amazon van.

Good points by @ragingloli. There is a weight and quantity limit when things are delivered by drone, and if you need a drone for every package, whereas a van can just load up and drop off, it doesn’t seem very practical. It might be more practical to do lunch deliveries, if a deli has to make 10 deliveries and they have a couple of drones, and each one can drop off and return within a few minutes, rather than a car having to deal with traffic and walking up to the door.

If a drone has to deliver to a building, there’s no easy way for that to happen. They’d have to leave it outside the building, whereas a delivery driver can enter the buidling by opening the door, knocking, whatev.

I think it’s a bad idea for a variety of technical and practical reasons. I also find it quite unappealing.

@Dutchess_III Some Amazon orders are delivered in Amazon delivery vans.

@JLeslie Yes. Some. I think I’ve seen 1 or 2 in the 3 years I’ve been buying from Amazon.
Most come via UPS. Then Fed Ex. Then USPS. Then a very few from Amazon.

I wonder if Drone Delivery means I could get fast food delivered from 15 miles away that we can’t get now by human drivers.I sure miss my McD breakfast stuff!

I ordered a pepper grinder from Amazon last night and it was delivered to my door this morning by Amazon van. I don’t see any advantage in drone delivery.

@Dutchess_III The Amazon truck is in my neighborhood regularly. We must have a distribution center near us.

Everything from Amazon is delivered by Amazon where I live and I see 1 or 2 vans almost every day. A drone would just leave it at the apt bldg entrance and residents would just have to hope nobody takes it. When Fedex or UPS deliver, the driver usually has a key for the bldg, so they leave it outside of a resident’s apt and knock.

I’m fine with it. I know it won’t happen for me living on the side of a mountain surrounded with trees.

Damn @Forever_Free! I’ll trade you allow my drones for your side of the mountain!