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jwz

Drone delivery: going just as great as self-driving cars.

Amazon's much-hyped drone project is dropping small objects on driveways. Customers are not sure what it delivers beyond minestrone.

"I know this looks like science fiction. It's not," said...
jwz.org/b/ykFr

10 comments
vxo

@jwz the fact that it completes the delivery by just yeeting your order from 12' instead of landing momentarily and setting down the payload makes it look even more like.... a proper robo-capitalism abomination. Carry on I guess

sen

@jwz Zipline is doing well with medical delivery in a few Central African countries, they very specifically package items to be droppable from a decently high altitude and with forward momentum. In terms of scale, I really donโ€™t want a future where every single large retailer has numerous UAVs flying all over the place polluting the airwaves with their infuriating buzzing. Iโ€™m happy to wait a day or more for my deliveries, leave the โ€œinstantโ€ stuff for actual emergencies.

Jeff

@sendai @jwz Zipline is working on making deliveries in the US too. A friend of mine managed to get hired there. He had a difficult time, because their engineering team is almost all aerospace hires, and they have little overlap with big tech. I expect they're going to do much better than AMZN.

At the same time, I really want the FAA to keep a firm grip on delivery drone rules.

Kudra :maybe_verified:

@overeducatedredneck @sendai @jwz came to the comments for this. Zipline seem far better placed to get this tech right. We'll have competent drone deliveries well before competent self drive cars...

jwz

@sendai I thought you meant actual zip lines and I was here for it.

sen

@jwz If Slartibartfast had got his way with the entire planet that may have been possible.

Mike J๐Ÿ‘น๐Ÿ€ ๐Ÿค˜๐Ÿป

@jwz Nothing is going to happen to Amazon when they drop a can of soup on a person, but the day they flatten a yappy dog Bezos is going to have to move further than Miami.

jwz

@mikej "Dog Was No Angel", Local Police Say

Justin Buist

@jwz Drone delivery would make sense for something with a high value to mass ratio. Like, drugs. And that industry has some experience with low level flight and sketchy landing sites.

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