Amazon delivery drones!

[Sammy]

Seriously, this is happening once FDAA approved (4 to 6 years). KEEP THE DOG IN THE HOUSE OMG! HAHA

here is the story on 60 minutes
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/amazon-u...very-by-drone/

[lemex]

The nature of technology will always continue to be used and become as common as cell phones. Hopefully it will create better jobs as old ones become obsolete. Amazon will corner the market is seems.

[WhiteWarrior]

I do not think such drones will be allowed. Not because the technology does not work, but because the potential security problems it causes is too big for any authorities to allow. It is the same reason we don't have flying cars yet. Today we already have millions of remote controlled planes and helicopters and other drones sold on the hobby and toy market, even with cameras. What limits them all is the short range of the radios used for control - less than hundred yards for any of them if I recall correctly. The UPS drones however will need a range of several miles, which will require frequencies on the radios now reserved for other uses or cell phone technologies. Ever lose connection on your cell phone? Now imagine that box-carrying drone flying in front of your car, carrying two pounds of something hard. I predict that this is yet another technology that, while technically feasible, will not be allowed to put into common use.

I'm still hoping for the day of an R2D2 clone coming on the market for a price I can meet, though.

[Tobi]

Neighbourhood DOGS are just going to love this!! hahaha
My guess is 60% of parcels delivered this way wouldn't make it.

[Sammy]

My first thought was the theft aspect as well. Would be easy enough to sit near a flight path and shoot one down. However its the same theft now just a different application, and less likely to harm innocents. The consequences will be the same anyway.

[DoctorStrange]

Not a good day for humanity if this turns into reality

[WhiteWarrior]

Originally Posted by LifeandOneness

Not a good day for humanity if this turns into reality

I am not entirely sure what you mean with this.

[DoctorStrange]

Originally Posted by WhiteWarrior

I am not entirely sure what you mean with this.

The military already use weaponised drones in areas of conflict. If people are being made used to drones, they will soon ask for drones for their protection.
Classic police state.

[Sammy]

Originally Posted by LifeandOneness

The military already use weaponised drones in areas of conflict. If people are being made used to drones, they will soon ask for drones for their protection.
Classic police state.

TERMINATOR AHHHH!!!

Robocop was cool though... he aight.

[WhiteWarrior]

Haha. We have had military drones in use since 1996 or so, when the CIA pioneered their use in Afghanistan and Iraq - although technically the Predator drone was first an abandoned, unarmed US Airforce project. President Obama greatly expanded the use of such crafts once he got into power, especially in Pakistan. It is a great tool for both attack and its original purpose of surveillance, because it is very very cheap in production and use compared with any other flying craft and because it is remote controlled - which means the pilot sits safe and cozy on his butt at a base somewhere in the US all the time. For those who control these drones it is the greatest invention since the guided missiles. For those innocent people who happen to live next door to a target, it is horrifying death from above.

But they are not really drones. They are remote controlled flying crafts, and while they can sustain flight for a few minutes if the link goes down they are really just a safe-for-the-pilot, politically-less-risky way to do the same job that planes and helicopters have been doing since 1900 or so. They really are little more than flying cellphones with rockets and cameras. And you can bet your butt that there are thousands of people, many of them with very high scientific background, already working to find a way to destroy them more effectively.

There will be no police drones. Why? Not because they cannot be made, I am sure the police already are awash in offers from system makers. But because a police drone needs a policeman to operate it, and unlike the military forces the police run on very lean budgets - especially in the US. Manpower is a heavy factor in the paperwork. A drone can fly around but it can't lean in on an argument between two neighbors or look for a stray dog under a house and pull it out. A drone can't do an interview about a stolen car or follow a bad smell. I do expect cop drones to come, but only to fill the role cop helicopters do already - an eye in the sky. How many copters do you think the cop offices have these days, outside the major cities? You know, the offices that keep reducing opening hours and staff lists every year?