Amazon's at it again, this time with a new drone and Jeremy Clarkson

Amazon recently released another promotional video (with Jeremy Clarkson) for it's brain child effort to fill the skies with package toting drones. This time they have a newer more versatile drone design that seams to be a step forward in actually making the concept of autonomously delivered packages seam closer to reality. With a range of 15 miles and on-board sense and avoid software, it seams a step in the right direction although this type of delivery system is still WAY off in the future.
As amazon continues to dump funds into this project it will be interesting to see if they can actually pull something like this off seeing more strict rules and guidelines for drone operations in civil air space.

The FAA's Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Registration Task Force Aviation Rulemaking Committee is still hammering out rules for private and commercial drone use in U.S. air space, so Amazon's lack of a specific launch timeline for Prime Air is understandable. But based on the video released today, it's becoming increasingly clear that Prime Air might not be a mere marketing stunt but a real look at the future of Amazon deliveries.

mashable.com...

a reply to: Sammamishman
I hope they drop their cargo from a couple hundred feet when the drone gets to it's destination, otherwise there will be a whole new genre of crime - waiting for drones to get near then ripping off the cargo or the drones themselves....Edit: I can imagine there will be many of them shot at as well.

I see this on sky news earlier this morning. I know you say it's a long way off but a 15 mile delivery distance. That's nothing that's not even the size of London if you measured it from east west. I really don't see this taking off (no pun intended) at all

a reply to: donktheclown

People do that now. Wait for the UPS driver to pull away and swipe the package. In the case of this demo, it looked like the delivery recipient had to place an amazon logo down on the ground for the drone to see and land. I expect that if someone is going to pay for a service like this they would be waiting around for it to come and would have to put the landing logo in a predetermined landing zone.

My thing about this is. When does the air just a hundred feet above us, go from everybodies to who ever purchases the flight route... and how would we get it back if we wanted it from human transport? lets say in 15 years.

a reply to: ThePeaceMaker

It will once the regs. are in place and the delivery systems can be perfected (able to deliver in less than ideal weather condition).
These are only incremental proof of concept steps that have to take place to get the range, endurance and lifting capability they need in the civil world that can make this happen. It is already a reality in the military world, it's only a matter of time till they get it established in the civil world.

a reply to: Sammamishman

Also, the fact remains that in order for this service to work, the prospective buyer will have to have a yard large enough for the Amazon-specified LZ. I'd imagine that the Amazon placard in the video will come with extremely specific instructions about just how large the LZ will need to be.

Meaning: This idea seems entirely geared towards suburban and rural homeowners, and thanks to landing space concerns and possible land use regulations, it may never be available to anyone else.

That fact alone should do a pretty good job of countering some of the, ahem, "socioeconomic complications" that people are speculating about.

Now, the part that got me really interested was the little tidbit about how this 15 mile radius drone would be part of a family of aircraft systems.

They're really serious about doing this, and knowing Amazon, this'll get interesting very fast, and we're going to see a rollout much sooner than we might otherwise think.

I am curious to see how personal air rights will factor into any potential drone deployment and how they would need to be routed.

a reply to: Antipathy17

With a mature sense and avoid system in place on the aircraft there wouldn't be a need for ownership of or even predetermined routs to and from a particular location. The drone just makes a straight line to the destination and flies around obstacles, be them static or moving. Self driving cars have the same design philosophy. The airspace still belongs to the gov. and they would be the ones still governing the rules for it.

a reply to: Barnalby

This also seams to be an option just for the ones who are economically affluent enough to afford this type of service. After all it won't come cheap for a long while after it actually gets implemented.
For those that can afford this type of delivery system and that live in an urban environment, I can see a central delivering location for individual buildings on the roof, in a curb side parking space or something similar.

Hope they can protect their drones from eagles and people with guns trying to shoot free Christmas presents outta the sky

a reply to: Sammamishman

Yesterday I placed an order with Prime and free same day delivery. My items came in within 6 hours. No drone and already unbeatable.

a reply to: Trueman

I think the drive behind this type of delivery is not only the time it takes to deliver (which would be less than Prime same day shipping speed) but the cost for Amazon to run the system. Eventually a drone that flies straight line to the destination will be more cost effective than paying for the truck, driver salary, and fuel costs for the tuck.

a reply to: Sammamishman

This.

As they say.

The Robopocalypse (as friends and I have been calling it) is all about cost. People have become very expensive and machines have become cheap. The answer is pretty straight forward: just substitute capital for labor.

As for people's questions about how drones might share the airspace once they are buzzing like bees, here's a graphic of the plan proposed by several different groups, including Amazon.

a reply to: Sammamishman

I expect that if someone is going to pay for a service like this they would be waiting around for it to come and would have to put the landing logo in a predetermined landing zone.

Unfortunately all that could be counteracted by a smart kid trying to override the guidance system and have the loaded drone land at his/her location instead. Now package and drone (imagine what that costs..) are gone. I'm sure they have that scenario accounted for, but again, there's smart people out there waiting to pounce....

a reply to: anzha

Yes, it is the sad truth. We're all being replaced by robots.

....All hail our robot overlords!

Tell me. What’s going to stop mischief makers from shooting down these drones and for their effort…maybe getting what’s inside them?

Are the drones going to be invisible?

Are they going to be mini armed drones where this barbarian can shoot people who would take a pot shot at his drone?

I wouldn’t be surprised!

Wait a minute.

Isn’t this discriminating against people in the Ghetto?

Where that droned might get mugged, stripped and sold for parts.

Everybody doesn’t have a nice big and pretty backyard or nice neighborhood.