what if one of these were to malfunction, falling out of the sky.. hitting someone in the head and killing them? very small probability but there has to be a plan right?
the effort required to make this work is not worth the time saved you can already get things overnight, rare instances where you need something sooner than that
lol awesome response Reminds of the guy who thought it would be cool if there was a place you could go and borrow books for free.
How low do you think commercial aircraft and helos fly? R/C aircraft will be the most impacted by drones.
Hipsters will love this, and will push for "laws" to pass so this is possible and it's "cool" to get their abercrombie & fitch sweaters this way. Why, exactly? What, you don't think there's roads or power lines there? What's the reasoning behind this "places like" comparison?
Have to comment again: Major props to Amazon for a marketing coup. A true stroke of genius. This drone delivery nonsense is viral, will linger a long time and everyone will think of Amazon when the subject is discussed.
One of the editors at the onion.com needs to copy & paste the CNN story and upload it to their site verbatim.
Very cool concept, but it will never see the light of day. ESPECIALLY here in the United States, where many adults care about privacy. There are also dozens of logistical issues to take into account...some are solvable, but many of them are outside Amazon's control. - Such a program will need to be opt-in, not only for the consumer him/herself, but also for his neighborhood and possibly even the entire town or city. I can see many cities passing laws banning drone-based deliveries. - This is completely impossible for apartments, condos and even dense urban areas such as NYC and SF. It may be doable for suburbs and rural areas, but people there are more particular about privacy. - A drone getting shot down is a legit concern although yes it would be a rare occurrence. I could see some immature teenagers attempting to shoot down a drone with a rifle just for the fun of it. Anyway, Amazon could easily counter the problem by making the drones armored, but armored drones are probably much more costly. - Very few if any businesses would want a drone delivering their packages. - Mechanical apparatuses malfunction and break, no matter how well-built they are. - And many more issues...technical, legal and so on. In the end, while interesting in concept, there's just too many logistical problems and red tape to overcome in order for this to be a viable practical solution. All of which adds to the R&D cost and operational cost of the program. I doubt the cost-benefit would work in favor of Amazon. And I suspect Bezos and Amazon knows this; they aren't stupid. I agree with the comments that this is probably just clever viral marketing.
I must be the only one to seen this like a year ago. I know it was just on 60 minutes yesterday but they been working on it for a while