Are Drone Delivery Services Finally Taking Off? (kiplinger.com) 40
Amazon isn't the only company that's started drone-delivery services. Kiplinger.com reports:
Walmart has 37 stores set up for drone delivery to homes and businesses — six stores in Arizona, four in Arkansas, nine Walmarts in Florida, two in North Carolina, 11 in Texas, two in Utah and three in Virginia. Walmart has partnered with drone delivery service DroneUp Delivery to deliver customers' packages that weigh 10 pounds or less. Walmart says that more than 10,000 items are available for drone delivery and items can arrive as quickly as 30 minutes after the order has been placed.
There are restrictions: Customers must live within one mile of participating stores. Orders are accepted on the DroneUp Delivery website from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. local time. "If it fits safely, it flies," Walmart said in a statement. "Participating stores will house a DroneUp delivery hub inclusive of a team of certified pilots, operating within FAA guidelines, that safely manage flight operations for deliveries. Once a customer places an order, the item is fulfilled from the store, packaged, loaded into the drone and delivered right to their yard using a cable that gently lowers the package."
Oh, and the top-selling item at one of Walmart's drone ports? Hamburger Helper. Just sayin'.
The Street notes predictions of increasing numbers of drone deliveries: A March 2022 report by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. found that more than 660,000 commercial drone deliveries were made to customers in the past three years and more than 2,000 drone deliveries are occurring each day worldwide. The report projected that this year close to 1.5 million deliveries will be made by drones, about triple the number in 2021.
But Business Insider reported last May that at least eight Amazon drones had crashed during testing in the past year, including one that sparked a 20-acre brush fire in eastern Oregon in June of 2021 after the drone's motors failed.
It's part of why The Street writes that the very idea of drone-delivery service has also "hit some turbulence along the way." There's plenty of skepticism about the practicality of broad-scale use of delivery drones. "[Because] of technical and financial limitations, drones are unlikely to be the future of package delivery on a mass scale," The New York Times' Shira Ovide reported in June. And safety is a critical concern. In 2018, hundreds of flights at Gatwick Airport near London were canceled following reports of drone sightings close to the runway. In September a delivery drone crashed into power lines in the Australian town of Browns Plains and knocked out power for more than 2,000 customers.
A survey by the business intelligence firm Morning Consult found that 57% of the respondents said they had little or no trust in the devices for deliveries, compared with 43% who said they had "a lot" or "some" trust. Respondents said they were worried about unsuccessful deliveries of items and threats to personal and data privacy related to using drones for delivery, including deliveries performed by Chinese-made drones.
There are restrictions: Customers must live within one mile of participating stores. Orders are accepted on the DroneUp Delivery website from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. local time. "If it fits safely, it flies," Walmart said in a statement. "Participating stores will house a DroneUp delivery hub inclusive of a team of certified pilots, operating within FAA guidelines, that safely manage flight operations for deliveries. Once a customer places an order, the item is fulfilled from the store, packaged, loaded into the drone and delivered right to their yard using a cable that gently lowers the package."
Oh, and the top-selling item at one of Walmart's drone ports? Hamburger Helper. Just sayin'.
The Street notes predictions of increasing numbers of drone deliveries: A March 2022 report by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. found that more than 660,000 commercial drone deliveries were made to customers in the past three years and more than 2,000 drone deliveries are occurring each day worldwide. The report projected that this year close to 1.5 million deliveries will be made by drones, about triple the number in 2021.
But Business Insider reported last May that at least eight Amazon drones had crashed during testing in the past year, including one that sparked a 20-acre brush fire in eastern Oregon in June of 2021 after the drone's motors failed.
It's part of why The Street writes that the very idea of drone-delivery service has also "hit some turbulence along the way." There's plenty of skepticism about the practicality of broad-scale use of delivery drones. "[Because] of technical and financial limitations, drones are unlikely to be the future of package delivery on a mass scale," The New York Times' Shira Ovide reported in June. And safety is a critical concern. In 2018, hundreds of flights at Gatwick Airport near London were canceled following reports of drone sightings close to the runway. In September a delivery drone crashed into power lines in the Australian town of Browns Plains and knocked out power for more than 2,000 customers.
A survey by the business intelligence firm Morning Consult found that 57% of the respondents said they had little or no trust in the devices for deliveries, compared with 43% who said they had "a lot" or "some" trust. Respondents said they were worried about unsuccessful deliveries of items and threats to personal and data privacy related to using drones for delivery, including deliveries performed by Chinese-made drones.
Nope. (Score:1)
Not this decade, sorry kids.
Re:Nope. (Score:5, Insightful)
You are so right.
The economics of drone delivery simply do not stack up in any way, shape or form.
The only reason that the likes of Google and Amazon are pushing their own services is to produce the "need" for something called a UTM (Unmanned Traffic Management) system. These corporates make their money by "clipping the ticket" on transactions such as advertising, retail sales etc and they see a huge opportunity to create UTMs that will "clip the ticket" on drone use.
A couple of years ago the FAA issued an NPRM (Notice of Proposed Rule Making) which would have required every drone (commercial and recreational) and RC model aircraft to be fitted with technology that made them impossible to use without first getting an electronic activation signal via one of these UTMs.
Although the FAA"s proposed regulation was watered down (but only after the tech companies said "we don't have the technology to do that right now) they have clearly stated their intention to introduce such a system as soon as the telcos and tech are ready.
Why?
Because Google, Amazon and a bunch of others are telling them "we must have this to keep the skies safe in the era of drone delivery".
So, these corporations are operating drone-delivery trials to create the perception that this service is really viable and about to explode -- thus governments should sign up for them to create UTMs that will earn the operators billions of dollars a year.
Google's "Wing" service offers drone delivery in a tiny handful of locations and they keep claiming huge numbers of deliveries have been done already -- but when you investigate further, all is not what it seems.
Firstly, Google isn't charging for those deliveries so naturally people think nothing of having a $5 coffee delivered by drone because delivery is free. What happens however, when the delivery fee is *actually* charged and that $5 coffee becomes a $13 coffee? Will people still be so keen to use such a service?
Secondly, Google requires its vendors (food companies etc) to set up shop in the Google Wing warehouse and that's a huge added expense for existing businesses. This isn't at all practical for most companies -- certainly not once they have to pass the cost of drone delivery onto their customers.
Then there are the liability issues of drones falling onto people, cars, highways, etc (which will happen). Already a Google Wing drone cut power to hundreds of houses after it crashed onto some power lines [theregister.com] in what Google called "a precautionary landing".
Factor in also, the fact that drones are highly affected by the weather in a way that some kid in a Honda Jazz or on a motorcycle isn't.
Also factor in the noise issues [youtube.com] which threaten to restrict the operating hours for such services.
Nope, not going to be in the least bit economically viable -- but then again, they don't have to be in order for Google and Amazon to scare governments into signing up for a UTM service that will keep the skies safe in the era of "the drone".
Coming Crashing Down (Score:2)
>> Are Drone Delivery Services Finally Taking Off?
Yes. They Need To Take Off Before Coming Crashing Down
The reason Hamburger Helper is top selling (Score:4, Funny)
"It does just fine by itself" https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Coming Crashing Down (Score:3)
>> Are Drone Delivery Services Finally Taking Off?
Sure . They Need To Take Off Before Coming Crashing Down
Drone delivery will really take off when.. (Score:2)
When weed can be delivered in 15 minutes or less drone deliveries will be booming.
Re: (Score:2)
When weed can be delivered in 15 minutes or less drone deliveries will be booming.
Wasn’t the whole idea of drones supposed to be about putting less smoke in the air, not more?
Re: (Score:2)
I this is part joking but when you think about it this is kindof an ideal scenario for drones.
The product is small and consistent volume, light weight and of relatively high value and usually delivered in a pretty localized area from where it's sold.
Remote ID (Score:4, Interesting)
This means that these drones have to comply with Remote ID, and that means anybody can scan and monitor these drones realtime in the air. I wonder if it will become popular to hijack these drones.
Re: (Score:2)
More paranoia about this? All you need to scan for the drones are two working eyes (maybe one). They all take off from the same location, travel less than a mile, and return.
"Hijacking" implies someone storming a cockpit, or at least taking over the software. I don't have high expectations for the security on board these things, but even in the worst-case scenario it'd be more steps to jump through than jacking an unattended, stationary package on your porch. So it will be less popular than that.
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Plus, who's to say there actually is someone controlling the drones? It could very well be pre-programmed with the location it needs to get to then all it needs is just GPS to determine its location. If it encounters a problem, like interference, it can easily do a return to home operation.
Heck, the hone base could have a beacon that helps the drone locate the approximate direction so it can fly there even if GPS is disrupted all the way home.
Remote ID isn't a big deal. It's just a formalization of ADS-B wh
Give Them a Medal! (Score:2)
Whoever wrote this title is so witty and punny.
Their career is really going to take off now!
--
The paper nominated me 12 or 13 times for the Pulitzer Prize. - Robert Scheer
Re: (Score:2)
Whoever wrote this title is so witty and punny.
Their career is really going to take off now!
-- The paper nominated me 12 or 13 times for the Pulitzer Prize. - Robert Scheer
No kidding, chatGPT is really looking profitable right now.
Top-selling item? (Score:2)
So not great loss if the delivery drone screws up, then.
I'm waiting for a package to be grabbed by a dog in the back yard where it's being drone-delivered and Fido having a ball with his new Tug-Toy.
Drone Delivery?! (Score:1)
ouch (Score:1)
Bad puns are taking off.
Re: (Score:2)
They need to work on their delivery.
Pilot salary divided by mile radius? (Score:2)
What is the business plan for extending deliveries beyond a one-mile radius? Most of the country isn't within a mile of a particular big-box store, and very few of those stores will have enough deliveries within a mile to pay salaries for a full-time pilot or two. (You'd need two pilots at full time to support 12-hour delivery periods seven days a week.)
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Yes, you are wrong. The drones the Ukrainian army (and to a limited extent the Russian army) are piloted by people. They are not self-piloted.
If you're thinking of those other drones, whether the Shahed or the ones Ukraine self-developed, they are guided by GPS or intertial guidance. In fact, in the attack on the Engels Air Force base inside Russia, Ukraine noted their special forces guided the drone in during the attack.
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8 AM to 8 PM is 12 hours per day. For 7 days a week, that adds up to 84 hours, so basically two full-time equivalents if we assume zero overhead for other tasks. One normal (US standard of 40 hours) full-time position can only support 12-hour shifts three days a week.
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I'm 2 miles from a Walmart and I really don't like going there, but sometimes I do. They used to be open 24/7 and I preferred to shop between midnight and 5 AM because there's very few people there at that time of night where I live. I found out that they update their point of sales software about 4 AM or at least I had to wait for updates between 4 and 5 twice. It took 30-45 minutes IIRC. They showed me the screen once and I saw a whole bunch of filenames being transferred. They had no idea how long i
Just have to find a small opening (Score:3, Interesting)
With new technology often you have to first find a viable little niche, hone your techniques and technology, and gradually expand your market. It perhaps may never be fully mainstream*, but for certain products and/or locations, it may be quite profitable.
The first home-desktop GUI (Lisa/Mac) were mostly rich-person toys. But then laser printers with desktop publishing software triggered demand, and Mac sales ramped way up, sparking a push toward GUI-capable PC hardware throughout the industry.
* At least not in a single lifetime. Maybe Jetson's shit will be viable in 100+ years.
Re: (Score:2)
The first home-desktop GUI (Lisa/Mac) were mostly rich-person toys. But then laser printers with desktop publishing software triggered demand, and Mac sales ramped way up, sparking a push toward GUI-capable PC hardware throughout the industry.
I have a PC XT with a GUI on it. It's a GRiDPad 1910, it has 1MB RAM and a 20MB disk, and it runs Geoworks. It even has a pen and does handwriting recognition. GUI-capable? Feh.
Until one falls and hits someone (Score:2)
He first usage of Walmart's drone delivery in the suburb of Glendale, AZ is already controversial:
https://www.azfamily.com/2023/... [azfamily.com]
The drones are several feet in diameter and sound like small helicopters. The sight of ten-pound packages dangling from the drones whizzing over houses and backyards is raising questions: what if there is an accident? Could one of these things be hacked to spy on me at home/
Re: (Score:2)
I used to live just under 2 miles from that Walmart - just out of delivery range, but also out of noise range. I'm sort of curious how long they have to put up with this noise and how bad it is if it's just flying over your home to a street elsewhere. Also how frequent. Once a day? Every hour? Every 15 minutes?
I was too close to a major thoroughfare for it to be peaceful Motorcycles and the fart cans on modified cars were far too common and sometimes shook the walls and I wasn't even right on the str
Re: (Score:2)
how bad it is if it's just flying over your home to a street elsewhere. Also how frequent. Once a day? Every hour? Every 15 minutes?
I'd prefer to never be annoyed by this, thanks.
Do Not Want (Score:3)
Here is some reasons off the top of my head
Do people need another excuse to be lazy? Look at a clear sky, that's what we will be giving up.
Re: (Score:2)
Since they're noisy, birds will avoid them. Also, I suspect as technology improves they'll become quieter. Birds will still avoid them because birds are typically very alert and will probably see it as a predator. And they'll still make a little noise.
Living in any city you'll hear noise. I occasionally hear military aircraft which can be very loud, but not too often. When I lived in a bigger city I heard police helicopters on a regular basis and sometimes gunshots. Other people in my city complain ab
Nope. Except for some special cases (Score:2)
Special cases like shipping medical probes to a lab over a busy city with a pre-planned route. For anything else, the tech is not ready, the cost is too high and the demand is not there either. Three show-stoppers will reliably prevent it from happening.
I can walk a mile (Score:2)
Stop Shopping at Walmart You Fucking Wankers (Score:3)
Stop sending money directly to China and the Walton family. I'd be happy to hear if every Walmart store burned down overnight. It is a leaching blight on our society.
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Drone Use Prohibited in Silicon Valley (Score:2)
Porch Pirates Skeet Shoot Drones with Shotguns (Score:2)
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