You guys realize this is a stunt, right? This being "Cyber Monday," Amazon got 10 minutes of free coverage on 60 Minutes and the residual PR that comes with such an insane idea the evening before one of their largest traffic days of the year.
Why do people opt for delivery on pizzas when they can just drive to the restaurant and pick it up themselves? You underestimate the laziness of people.
People are just gonna steal these drones. Some of you have too much faith in humanity. Especially in America where there are no morals.
I don't think there is enough time for anyone to steal a drone. I mean it drops the package and is back in the air in less than 10 seconds. Plus what would anyone even do with a drone? It's probably not worth much in scrap metal. Furthermore one would be in violation of mail fraud which is a big offense.
How is that mail, it is just theft. Those things will have to have incredible batteries and engines that can be used in anything.
This is America dude. There are a lot of stupid people here. Logic doesn't always come into play in this country.
It's the United States. Kids are fapping or watching Fast and the Furious six times a day. They can steal drones by the dozens if only you tell them "don't steal these drones." I've seen thieves steal your cell phone in less than five seconds. Unscrew the top. Disconnect main board. Replace with own board. Take it out to the field. Well, you're right about that, but no kid would actually go try to sell it for scrap, if they're not even going to recycle cans anymore at $.40/lb. If that was REALLY "mail", which this isn't. Neither is UPS. This is just a service.
It wouldn't make sense for Amazon to make drones and then not have some way to track them. As soon as the thing stopped functioning properly (wouldn't return to the warehouse) they would likely trigger someone to go look for it. I can't imagine theft of those things would be very successful. http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/04/technology/innovation/dominos-pizza-drone/