Amazon Evaluating Drone Deliveries In Australia, Asia

Amazon is preparing to expand Prime Air drone deliveries into Australia and potentially other Asia-Pacific markets, with a new regulatory role tasked with securing the approvals needed to launch service there. The Register reports: "As Prime Air evaluates Australia and other countries, we are hiring a Head of Regulatory Approvals, Australia -- the person responsible for navigating Australia's aviation regulatory system and securing every approval required to deliver to Australian customers by drone," reads a recently published job ad.

Whoever gets the gig in Australia will report to someone who holds the title "Leader, Prime Air Expansion -- Asia Pacific." Whoever gets the job "will be measured by the approvals you obtain, the timelines you hit, and -- ultimately -- Australian customers receiving drone deliveries." That wording suggests Amazon intends to operate Prime Air in Australia and is doing rather more than market evaluations.

Offtopic

[TwistedGreen]

Is nobody concerned about the noise pollution from these things? Or is everyone so deaf now, with the constant noise from traffic, hvac systems, lawnmowers, leaf blowers, etc. that we no longer remember what silence is?

Sometimes I think that we are so preoccupied with whether or not we could that we don't stop to think if we should.

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[Nkwe]

Silence oh how I miss you. FU tinnitus.

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[MrKaos]

Is nobody concerned about the noise pollution from these things? Or is everyone so deaf now, with the constant noise from traffic, hvac systems, lawnmowers, leaf blowers, etc. that we no longer remember what silence is?

Also Birds. I prefer to have birds around than stupid drones delivering shit. The only consideration is if it uses less fuel energy than a driver with a truck full of parcels.

Eagles in Australia are known to attack and disable drones and are notoriously territorial [youtube.com], big, dangerous, fucking awesome and a protected species - meaning you are liable if your drone hurts one whilst it is attacking your drone.

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[quenda]

Also Birds. I prefer to have birds around than stupid drones delivering shit.

Dangerous words for an Australian. Do you want to be woken at 5am by a thousand squawking cockatoos in the big gumtree on your verge?

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[MrKaos]

Also Birds. I prefer to have birds around than stupid drones delivering shit.

Dangerous words for an Australian. Do you want to be woken at 5am by a thousand squawking cockatoos in the big gumtree on your verge?

They're too busy eating all the kumquats off my fruit trees to make any noise. If you said Kookaburras then it might be a different story.

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[nugatory78]

I'm actually interested in what they plan to do about Wedge Tailed eagles. I remember as a kid losing kites to those monsters, they are very territorial during breading season. For those that don't know how big they are, from Wikipedia: "it has a maximum reported wingspan of 2.84 m (9 ft 4 in) and a length of up to 1.06 m (3 ft 6 in)."

Aussie

[rossdee]

Say Bruce, do you think you can hit that drone with a boomerang?

Where are all the drone deliveries happening?

[Valgrus Thunderaxe]

We read about them everyday here, like it's some very routine thing. I can't actually find *any* place where I can actually get anything delivered by a drone. Maybe in San Francisco drones are flying and delivering anything but I'm not even sure that's the case.

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[kamapuaa]

Right now it’s only being done in a very limited number of places. I know the big one is some small suburb of Austin.

HYPE !!!

[Archfeld]

The market for drone deliveries is not large. The item has to be small, light, and balanceable, while also being worth enough to deliver via drone, while the population has to be dense enough to warrant it, but not to dense as to pose a flight hazard. This is silly hype.

Drone failure is dangerous.

[Futurepower(R)]

If a drone stops working correctly, it could crash into your house and start a fire.

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[MrKaos]

If a drone stops working correctly, it could crash into your house and start a fire.

In Australia it could cause a bush fire - so you've actually raised a very valid safety concern.

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[quenda]

If a drone stops working correctly, it could crash into your house and start a fire.

In Australia it could cause a bush fire - so you've actually raised a very valid safety concern.

Good point that the yanks might miss because they never have bushfires in California.

Re: Drone failure is dangerous.

[drinkypoo]

We don't! We have brush fires instead ;)

Old news

[Buchenskjoll]

I once bought a drone and had it delivered.