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[Aqizzar]

Because if you haven't already heard, this is the stupidest idea I've ever seen.

Like Google, Amazon is one of those companies that one day found itself making way more money than it had any purpose for, and decided to start throwing it at any futury-sounding idea that came their way.  See: Kindle, which is a success story.  See also: that dumbass robot up there, Titanic-scale blunder in the making.

It is true that the FAA is planning to revise its regulations for domestic unmanned vehicles in 2015, the same time Amazon says their technology will be ready for rollout, although the FAA has pretty specifically said that the kind of thing Amazon wants to do will not be part of their revisions.  It's also true that a number of police stations around the country have started testing aerial drones for regular use, but at the same time quite a few states and are cooking up laws to make privately operated drones as illegal as parking a jumpjet in your driveway, for many of the same reasons.  To say nothing of the states passing bullshit permissions to hunt drones like birds, or the much more serious vulnerabilities of commercial-grade drones to hijacking.

So yeah, I think this is a really stupid marking gimmick on Amazon's part which will vanish like most vaporware, and I sincerely hope that they lose their asses on it if they actually deploy to a test market in the future.  Thoughts?

[nenjin]

I see many landowning rednecks getting free Amazon stuff from shooting drones flying over their property. And they might even have a legal argument for it.

On the other hand, there could be an economical and ecological savings from having the most popular delivery company in the world doing all their local deliveries with electricity instead of giant, gas guzzling UPS and Fed Ex trucks. But since the drones can't successfully transport something weighing more than a few pounds, it becomes a question of how many gas guzzling trucks you don't end up sending out because all your books, cds, geegaws and whirlygigs get delivered by drone.

Also, his time table pitch is....optimistic, to say the very least. People in BFE aren't going to see their order in 30 mins. He's speaking purely to the suburban and city crowd.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Well, part of the plan is having the drones fly out of effective firearm range until they reach their delivery point. Still, an odd thing. I'm not going to dismiss it outright, because we all know what can sometimes happen when you take an extremely ambitious idea and run with it, consequences be damned.

[Loud Whispers]

Well, part of the plan is having the drones fly out of effective firearm range until they reach their delivery point. Still, an odd thing. I'm not going to dismiss it outright, because we all know what can sometimes happen when you take an extremely ambitious idea and run with it, consequences be damned.

I've already seen people wagering on whether they could take down these drones with a fleet of modified RC planes.

[Bouchart]

Like Google, Amazon is one of those companies that one day found itself making way more money than it had any purpose for

Amazon does not make money.  In fact, if you look at its financials in depth, they're actually doing pretty badly.  They've had declining earnings for three years, posted a loss in Q3, are forecasting $0 profit in Q4, and take on average 75 or so days to pay their vendors, which is extreme compared to their competitors like Wal-Mart that take only 30 days or so.  Paulo Santos is an analyst who I read regularly and he's been dissecting their bad financials for two years.

Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, is a charlatan.  He is a master of manipulating Wall Street.  He needs the share price of AMZN to continually increase because a lot of AMZN employees are compensated with stock.  So he throws out all of these fancy ideas and people imagine all sorts of wonderful things about the company.

This isn't something to take seriously.  Really, using unmanned aircraft to deliver 5lb or less package within 10 miles of a distribution center?  Might as well hire a teenager to deliver it on a bicycle.

[Loud Whispers]

This isn't something to take seriously.  Really, using unmanned aircraft to deliver 5lb or less package within 10 miles of a distribution center?  Might as well hire a teenager to deliver it on a bicycle.

But then you've got all the problems mentioned beforehand. Can a teenager on a bicycle take on a fleet of weaponized RC planes? Ride outside of effective firearm range?

[Bouchart]

This isn't something to take seriously.  Really, using unmanned aircraft to deliver 5lb or less package within 10 miles of a distribution center?  Might as well hire a teenager to deliver it on a bicycle.

But then you've got all the problems mentioned beforehand. Can a teenager on a bicycle take on a fleet of weaponized RC planes? Ride outside of effective firearm range?

Then Amazon should hire reformed inner-city gangsters that know how to survive a drive-by.

[Bdthemag]

It's a blatant PR stunt at best, with Amazon just wanting to be seen as the new trendy, future-minded company. I sincerely doubt this is going to happen, and if it does it'll only be in a few select places (Just like the Google internet provider.)

[MetalSlimeHunt]

It's a blatant PR stunt at best, with Amazon just wanting to be seen as the new trendy, future-minded company. I sincerely doubt this is going to happen, and if it does it'll only be in a few select places (Just like the Google internet provider.)

I wish it would end up like Google Fiber. That'd be great, since the mere existence of Google Fiber has shifted the public view of internet speed from "man, this 100mb/s sure is acceptable" to "hey, what the fuck, why can Google offer something that blows all other internet out of the water". The major ISPs are going to be in trouble soon if they don't start making concessions.

[Loud Whispers]

Then Amazon should hire reformed inner-city gangsters that know how to survive a drive-by.

Or Amazon could support the troops looking for work.
10 years after their Empire has delivered to all the corners of the Earth, they could stage an e-Coup with their postmen.

[Leafsnail]

It's really a "statement of intent" at most, the technology to do this simply doesn't exist.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/02/amazon-drone-delivery-jeff-bezos-hype

[Aqizzar]

Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, is a charlatan.  He is a master of manipulating Wall Street.  He needs the share price of AMZN to continually increase because a lot of AMZN employees are compensated with stock.  So he throws out all of these fancy ideas and people imagine all sorts of wonderful things about the company.

And suddenly the whole act makes much more sense.  I had a feeling this was the case, I just wanted to see other people thought about it.  It's one of those things where I assume a company that manages to be ubiquitous must be making enough money to light on fire.  Why I assume this when I already know better... eh, whatever.  Drunken Predator Drone already told me everything I really needed to hear.

Likewise, I like how their launch video of an Amazon shipment center doesn't show the small army of sub-minimum-wage slaves scurrying around like Jawas trying to keep up with Cyber Monday shipments.

[Andrew425]

When he said five years I assumed he meant ten. I think a company like Amazon could probably do it in that time frame. It wouldn't be ubiquitous but I can see it being fielded around then. Maybe 15-20 years and then you'll look into the sky and see a mini highway of drones flying back and forth

[misko27]

Fuck Rednecks, if Amazon starts doing that I'd be up there, perched on the roof of my building, utilizing RC helicopters and whatever else I can legally justify to sink them from the sky. It sounds like fun.

[Leafsnail]

Maybe they could do this for extremely isolated communities at a premium cost, but for most places I can't see how it could be cheaper than just paying people to deliver things normally.