Amazon testing drones for deliveries

[DejaVu]

Amazon testing drones for deliveries




Drone delivery - fact or fiction?

Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, is testing unmanned drones to deliver goods to customers, Chief Executive Jeff Bezos says.

The drones, called Octocopters, could deliver packages weighing up to 2.3kg to customers within 30 minutes of them placing the order, he said.
However, he added that it could take up to five years for the service to start.

The US Federal Aviation Administration is yet to approve the use of unmanned drones for civilian purposes.
"I know this looks like science fiction, but it's not," Mr Bezos told CBS television's 60 Minutes programme.
"We can do half-hour delivery... and we can carry objects, we think, up to five pounds (2.3kg), which covers 86% of the items that we deliver."

From a technology point of view, we'll be ready to enter commercial operations as soon as the necessary regulations are in place”
Amazon

The service will be called Prime Air and comes as Amazon is looking to improve its efficiency to boost growth.

Amazon also posted a video on its website showing a drone picking up a package from one of its warehouses and delivering it to the doorstep of a customer's house.
However, it still has to wait for permission from US regulators.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98BIu9dpwHU

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has approved the use of drones for police and government agencies, issuing about 1,400 permits over the past several years.
Civilian air space is expected to be opened up to all kinds of drones in the US by 2015 and in Europe by 2016.

Existing regulations are in place to minimise the risk of injury to people on the ground, said Dr Darren Ansell, an expert on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) from the University of Central Lancashire.

"The UAVs do not currently have the awareness of their environment to be able to avoid flying into people. To deliver goods to people's homes for example in residential areas, the UAVs must overfly densely populated towns and cities, something that today's regulations prevent.

"Other things to consider are security of the goods during the transit. With no one to guard them the aircraft and package could be captured and stolen," he said.
Amazon said: "from a technology point of view, we'll be ready to enter commercial operations as soon as the necessary regulations are in place."

The FAA was "actively working on rules for unmanned aerial vehicles", the company said, adding that it hoped the green light would be given as early as 2015.
"One day, Prime Air vehicles will be as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road today."

Zookal, an Australian textbook rental company, announced earlier this year that it would start using drones to make deliveries from 2015 if approved by Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority.

Australian law allows the use of unmanned aircraft for commercial use.

SOURCE

[Mr Slippyfist]

I've been reading about this for a couple of days and all i can say is i have never heard of anything so ridiculous in my life.

[greaseweasel]

Can't see it happening.

There is a real worry that these things will be in common use by police forces though to replace officers on the beat eventually, not only watching but listening in.

[Mobileman]

as mentioned in the djphantom thread complete crap everyone with a catapult, air rifle or bird nets will have a field day free gifts from the sky

[darkstar]

Can't see it happening.

There is a real worry that these things will be in common use by police forces though to replace officers on the beat eventually, not only watching but listening in.

Lets face it would rather have a small drone land on the pub I was drinking in than a large helicopter if you know what I mean !!!

[Mr.James]

as mentioned in the djphantom thread complete crap everyone with a catapult, air rifle or bird nets will have a field day free gifts from the sky

Idiots in cars chasing iPads across town like in the movie Twister lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[burner1]

What if you're not in?

[Geko]

They are only delivering light goods. So it won't be expensive electronics. I'd imagine the value would be in a free "Drone", rather than a Madonna CD.

[Mule]

as mentioned in the djphantom thread complete crap everyone with a catapult, air rifle or bird nets will have a field day free gifts from the sky

They'd know exactly where they are and I'm sure they'd be fitted with cameras. Plus you'd have to know when and where they'd be and be a bloody good shot as they'll be small, fast and probably very high.

What if you're not in?

Why would you order something for the next half hour if you're not going to be in?

[DejaVu]

Idiots in cars chasing iPads across town like in the movie Twister lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Doubt Remote control.
Pretty confident they are controlled by GPS automatically with maybe a little obstruction avoidance. Pointless having numpties chasing round town after them... kinda defeats the object. Not sure how it'll go when my dog attacks it.
They are soooo going to be subjected to target practice and a fuck load of thefts too!

[rookie]

To be honest it will never happen. Good PR though. Get amazons name in the paper and on the news in december busiest time for them. To be honest didnt think of amazon for ages till i saw this on the news

[Geko]

There might come a time when you'll wait for a drone instead of a truck for yourAmazon or UPS package, while worrying about tech-savvy thieves instead of armed robbers. Let's just hope no ne'er-do-well uses Samy Kamkar's SkyJack for evil, because the software can worm its way into flying machines to take over their brains. Kamkar, who hacks things presumably to spread security awareness, loaded the offending code onto a Raspberry Pi-equipped Parrot AR.Drone 2.0. The result is a flying contraption that's capable of seeking out other drones' wireless signals and forcefully severing their connection from their true owners. Worse, the software works just as well installed on a land-based computer.

Curious folks can check out Kamkar's video after the break for a quick demo, but those tech-savvy enough can get a deeper understanding through SkyJack's source code. The system can only hijack drones with Parrot's WiFi MAC addresses at this point, but here's hoping companies take note and make future delivery drones more secure just in case.


http://www.engadget.com/2013/12/04/s...-pi/#continued