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Walmart Applies To Test Drone Use For Delivery and Inventory Checking (faa.gov) 49

Posted by Soulskill from the giant-pickles-delivered-directly-to-your-trash-can dept.
An anonymous reader writes: Retailing giant Walmart has submitted an application to the Federal Aviation Administration requesting permission to run drone trials. The tests are to include not only home delivery — with the permission of residents within the 'flight path' — but also inventory-checking procedures at Walmart parking lots. It only costs $5 to make an application of this nature to the FAA, and until some hint of concrete legislation comes to light from the newly-formed UAS task force on November 20th, that's probably about as much as any company would want to spend on speculative drone-delivery research.
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Walmart Applies To Test Drone Use For Delivery and Inventory Checking More

Walmart Applies To Test Drone Use For Delivery and Inventory Checking

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  • Walmart is Skynet.

  • So now I get to worry about one of these things smacking me in the face while I'm cutting my grass? No thanks. Space is already at a premium in urban areas. I don't think Walmart should get to take up even more of it.

  • Watch out for falling prices! (Score:4, Funny)

    by ztexas ( 1351217 ) on Monday October 26, 2015 @08:11PM (#50806565)
    And/or medium-sized drones carrying Velveeta and beer!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Burz ( 138833 )

      Max Headroom was not an exaggeration after all (the episode with junk falling from the sky).

  • No. Legislation comes from the legislature. The DoT's new regulatory efforts are not only NOT legislative (they are regulatory, from the administration running the executive branch), but they are talking about doing things that fly in the face of a law that WAS passed by the legislature. The DoT is talking about regulating classes of RC toys that congress explicitly ruled as off-limits from exactly that sort of action by the administration.
  • until some hint of the FAA on November 20th. you can play, too.
    • Applying concrete is kind of an edge case for drones.

      Now, applying crowd-controlling teargas, there's your growth market.

  • Lasers (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    "... inventory-checking procedures at Walmart parking lots ..." (drone follows you in parking lot and says [in robot voice]) Did you just buy that, please show your receipt, return to store now, last warning, 3, 2, 1 [pew! pew!]

  • Nope, no way automation is going to eliminate any jobs, and even if it were (which it's not) we can just lower pay to compensate and prices will fall until the lower pay has equal buying power, right?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by 0123456 ( 636235 )

      Nope, no way automation is going to eliminate any jobs, and even if it were (which it's not) we can just lower pay to compensate and prices will fall until the lower pay has equal buying power, right?

      You're right. It's not like we've been automating jobs away for a century or more, yet now have far more people employed than were back then.

  • Meaning watching customers headed for their cars with presumably stolen merchandise? Counting the shopping carts? Spying on RVs they allow to park there for the night?

  • New section to be added to the People of Walmart [peopleofwalmart.com] web page : aerial reconnaissance photos.

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