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Amazon's drone delivery program is the joke it always sounded like. (news.yahoo.com)

submitted 1 year ago by FlyingSquid@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

239 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Only one item can be delivered at a time. It can’t weigh more than 5 pounds. It can’t be too big. It can’t be something breakable, since the drone drops it from 12 feet. The drones can’t fly when it is too hot or too windy or too rainy.

You need to be home to put out the landing target and to make sure that a porch pirate doesn’t make off with your item or that it doesn’t roll into the street (which happened once to Lord and Silverman). But your car can’t be in the driveway. Letting the drone land in the backyard would avoid some of these problems, but not if there are trees.

Amazon has also warned customers that drone delivery is unavailable during periods of high demand for drone delivery.

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[–] zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Maybe if they used bigger craft with larger payload capacity and longer range

[–] lipilee@feddit.nl 27 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And maybe that craft could have wheels instead of rotors to mitigate the rain/wind problems... i think we might be on to something here!

[–] grayman@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Like a Chinook!?

[–] lud@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Haha, now I am picturing a huge Chinook delivering the smallest package of essentially bullshit to my door.

Yeah, I am totally behind that idea.

[–] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Or one of the ch54 skycranes delivering a shipping container of amazon returns to the auction winners.

[–] UnspecificGravity@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The problem is that the bigger and heavier the craft the higher it's minimum drop height is going to be because it's more dangerous and needs more clearance.

Obviously it also becomes much more costly to run.

[–] Obi@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Put a little parachute on the package to soften the fall! /s

[–] Zevlen@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

That made me laugh... I was imagining a small parachute hooked up to a plasma TV 😲

[–] PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

The UK drone delivery does that

[–] histic@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

not even necessary a bigger capacity I mean it being just able to bring me like a bag of chips or something I forgot for dinner would be great

[–] Fluke@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

While people will undoubtedly take the piss, for a number of reasons, it's less energy expenditure / lower footprint than you getting in your car/truck and going to the store and getting them yourself.

[–] ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

If you factor in all the logistics and systems necessary to run the drone operations and all associated functions, is it likely to be much of a saving?

I could see something like this as useful for medical prescription delivery, but that comes with its own issues and dangers.

[–] GiveMemes@jlai.lu 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah, almost definitely. Even if those systems have a relatively high power draw, they're still not being powered by a low efficiency ice engine but are being powered by a grid that's only getting greener. Also factor in the fact that a car+person is minimum about 1100kg that needs to be transported as opposed to the low weight items plus the weight of the drone (can't be more than 2-3 kg)

[–] zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago

Would it be less energy expenditure than a delivery van making multiple stops on its way to deliver you your bag of chips?