

Amazon details drone delivery plans - escapologybb
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-32653269

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EricSu
First sentence: "According to the patent, the drones will be able to track the
location of the person it is delivering to by pulling data from their
smartphone."

Further down: "Using Audi's...communications system...DHL delivery drivers
would track a customer's vehicle over a specified period of time and then use
a digital access code to unlock the boot. This code would then expire as soon
as the boot was shut."

...well this is all a little more unsettling than having your mailman or a
FedEx driver drop by your house

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JustThrowinAway
If the issue is someone knowing your whereabouts during the day, hopefully you
consider it pretty unsettling that everyone who knows your address can be
reasonably certain where you are between 6 PM and 7 AM.

That being said, I can see being uncomfortable with them having access to your
trunk.

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vowelless
There is reasonable expectation that people _can_ drop by when you are "at
home".

But when driving around on 5th avenue, seeing a DHL truck chasing you around?
That's just not a reasonable expectation.

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JustThrowinAway
Why not?

The reason these companies deliver to an address is because historically, that
is the most convenient way for them to get your package to you.

Now it would be more convenient for you (and less so for them, given the
amount of effort that goes into route planning) to deliver to wherever you
are.

A truck would hardly 'chase you around', but might follow you until you've
parked, and give the package to you then.

I'd say the service places an unreasonable expectation on the shipping
company, rather than on the consumer.

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amelius
I don't see any implementatin details in that patent, only a very rough sketch
of how such a system could work (but many important details missing!) It could
be me though.

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ekianjo
Yeah, I am wondering about the limits of range, package weight, recharging
operations and more for this kind of use. There are probably many headaches
involved in implementing such projects.

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amelius
Range could be handled by having recharging stations spread out through a city
(a drone could also swap batteries). However, the challenge is to keep the
solution as low-cost as possible, because drones will be lost to weather,
crashes, etc.

None of this is addressed though.

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johnm1019
Why is the challenge to keep costs low?

If this means I can have something delivered in 45 minutes, or maybe 20
minutes!, they can charge a premium for that. Otherwise I wait for the big
truck to bring it by within 2 days and it's free. Right now there is no
solution at any cost, in my market, by which I can order almost any product
from Amazon and have it within a few hours.

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TillE
Amazon already does same-day delivery in more areas than you're likely to see
drone-delivery in the next 5-10 years.

In most places, the fancy technology has zero advantage over employing a
handful of couriers. Exceptions would include extreme geography or traffic
conditions.

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william_barnes
Straight line delivery and Amazons ability to mark a job finished more quickly
are both valuable in any area.

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abandonliberty
Title is misleading.

Given that you can patent without implementing, and unimplemented patents can
leave you open to lawsuits, organizations are forced to patent everything they
they may want to do someday.

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rhino369
A patent isn't necessarily what someone will implement. It's just one possible
embodiment.

