The idea of “delivery by drone” floated by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos the other day:
Amazon.com is testing delivering packages using drones, CEO Jeff Bezos said on the CBS TV news show 60 Minutes Sunday.
The idea would be to deliver packages as quickly as possible using the small, unmanned aircraft, through a service the company is calling Prime Air, the CEO said.
Bezos played a demo video on 60 Minutes that showed how the aircraft, also known as octocopters, will pick up packages in small yellow buckets at Amazon’s fulfillment centers and fly through the air to deliver items to customers after they hit the buy button online at Amazon.com.
has certainly caught the fancy of many people. It’s being called everything from “crazy” to a “publicity coup”.
How’s this for an idea to conjure with: armed commercial delivery drones.
“How’s this for an idea to conjure with: armed commercial delivery drones.”
I think we just came up with at least the economic equivalent: Obamacare.
Armed commercial drones buzzing about by the tens of thousands, controller by sophisticated AI systems? Sounds like a libertarian fantasy come to life. Let people purchase their own protection from armed private security forces. What could go wrong? *cough-Skynet-cough*
The more I think about it the less likely I think something like this is to happen. How do you know that drone coming towards your house is something you want rather than a bomb or a camera taking pictures of what’s going on through your second floor windows? You’d need some sort of barrier that could only be traversed if the drone were in possession of some sort of token. Sounds unworkable.
The difference between a drone and a UPS truck is that UPS trucks don’t generally drive up to your door and the UPS guy doesn’t have hover capability.
On solution would be to have central delivery points for a neighborhood. Apartment complexes and newer neighborhoods often have centralized mailboxes. The mail gets close enough to your house to walk to it conveniently, but not to your house. A compromise between picking up mail at the post office and the inefficiency of delivering to every single address. Build small gazebo sized delivery points in neighborhoods for the delivery drones to use. Have the system buzz you when the delivery is made, with the box number and an access code. Rich people and those aspiring too be rich will pay a premium to have such facilities in their neighborhoods.
That’s very consistent with Amazon’s “Local Express Delivery”.
Make some of the storage bins refrigerated and they can start delivering all kinds of stuff. Again, a premium service for rich status seekers.
The more valuable the cargo the more we get back to my armed commercial delivery drones idea.
Could add new meaning to the idea of corporate warfare. Can we arm them with lasers?
Steve
Can we arm them with lasers?
Only if they’re made in the shape of a shark.