this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2023
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Only one item can be delivered at a time. It can’t weigh more than 5 pounds. It can’t be too big. It can’t be something breakable, since the drone drops it from 12 feet. The drones can’t fly when it is too hot or too windy or too rainy.

You need to be home to put out the landing target and to make sure that a porch pirate doesn’t make off with your item or that it doesn’t roll into the street (which happened once to Lord and Silverman). But your car can’t be in the driveway. Letting the drone land in the backyard would avoid some of these problems, but not if there are trees.

Amazon has also warned customers that drone delivery is unavailable during periods of high demand for drone delivery.

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[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It raises the question why a drone can't deposit it lower than 12 feet. Is this drone theft control?

[–] Natanael@slrpnk.net 6 points 1 year ago

It can't be allowed to fly too close to people, and there's also concerns with interfere, collisions, animals, etc

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Probably loss of signal from GPS for one, and there are far more obstacles like power lines that can be hit below 12 feet.

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[–] 5gruel@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Having built commerical drones, it's mainly two things, obstacles and ground effect.

[–] nutsack@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago (10 children)

it's just advertising it's not really meant to be practical you're advertising for them good job

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[–] Elliott@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Maybe the end game is something far more sinister and this is a good way to iron out the bugs.

[–] CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I mean, the most obvious sinister application for this tech I can think of would be military dones that precisely drop small bombs on targets, but based on the ongoing war in Ukraine, that technology already has been developed, so Amazon of all companies developing it again would be pointless.

EDIT: come to think of it though, while the technology for that military application already exists, having a delivery drone industry might be a benefit to a country in wartime anyway, because the factories to build those drones could be repurposed to make military drones, and the drone fleet itself could be requisitioned, sort of like how navies have often throughout history pressed civilian ships into service in various roles, and with probably minimal modifications be used to gain a sizable fleet of bombing drones very quickly without having to have the military maintain that fleet idle in peacetime. Not sure this actually benefits the company much though, just the country that has a sizable network of these drones and/or factories to build them within it's control.

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 7 points 1 year ago (5 children)

can't fly when too hot

What the fuck?! My cheap ass, $10 AirHog drone that is entirely plastic and foam can fly in 115F temps (as hot as it's ever been here). What the shit kind of crappy components do Amazon's delivery drones use?!

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[–] can_of_giraffe@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

See also: Royal Mail in the UK experimenting with drones. Not doing the last miles delivery to customers, but reinforcing the network with a human still actually shoving the damp bits of paper through the door.

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[–] cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How is the delivery drone going to navigate around my wire antennas strung between the trees?

Even when you know where they are, they're hard to see unless the sun hits them just right.

[–] Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I suspect that would be your responsibility to either clear the area or not use the service. I can see the service having some useful niche case uses. Mainly if you need something light on short notice.

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[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

This sounds like a terrible premise for an episode of the Jetsons

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