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chrisdh79 OP t1_j1zppen wrote

From the article: Amazon has begun delivering orders by drone. Amazon Prime Air is now operating in Lockeford, Calif. and College Station, Texas, delivering a small number of packages just in time for Christmas.

In August of this year, the retail giant received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to use drones for package deliveries. The maximum payload for Prime Air is 5 lb, and Amazon says that 85 percent of its shipments fall under that weight.

Residents of both towns can sign up for the service, and Amazon will then confirm that the company can deliver safely to the customer's address. Once an order is placed, the customer gets an estimated delivery time and tracking info.

"The drone will fly to the designated delivery location, descend to the customer's backyard, and hover at a safe height," Amazon said. "It will then safely release the package and rise back up to altitude."

Lockeford is a small, rural town of about 3,500 residents located about 50 miles southeast of Sacramento and just northwest of Stockton, making it an ideal location to pilot drone delivery. College Station is roughly 100 miles northwest of Houston and is the home of Texas A&M University.

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Historical_Emeritus t1_j1zqxbr wrote

I think I'm stuck in a time loop because I swear I've seen this story like 18 times over the past decade.

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Borba02 t1_j1zrzh2 wrote

Lockeford California is a tiny farm town. At least it was the last I went through it. I guess they want a manageable sized market to test with first. Lockeford also has a really good butcher if you like farm to table sausage, some of the best. I didn't even realize there was a distribution center close enough to the town to service it. Practically all wine and cherry country.

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Furimbus t1_j1zskrj wrote

Are the drones remotely piloted by Amazon employees, or are they autonomous?

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realsuitboi t1_j1zuyo7 wrote

Brilliant idea to start in Texas. Shoot it down and you get a small reward.

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MrZimothy t1_j1zyxro wrote

One has to wonder the implications of these having cameras.

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Cryptolution t1_j1zzd8l wrote

I can't wait for this to get banned. This drone delivery idea is massively fucking stupid.

It's like red light cameras. We all think it's a great idea until it fucks our reality up then we waste billions by outlawing the thing we already spent money on.

At least this is a private company whoses losses will be their own.

Has anyone actually thought of what life will be like when we constantly have dozens of these noisy fuckers flying over our head constantly? Won't be able to look at the sunset without dronepocalypse ...

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basshead17 t1_j200div wrote

I, for one, don't want drones flying over my roof all the time

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095449002 t1_j2012zq wrote

Package thieves are going to reinvigorate the falconry tradition.

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leviwhite9 t1_j2032qa wrote

A small reward being an extended stay in federal fuck me in the ass prison.

If it's in the air and doesn't have a heartbeat it's likely "aircraft" per the FAA and the "FA" in their name isn't for "fuckin around."

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linuxwes t1_j2036u4 wrote

The same argument could be made about telephone lines, airplanes, and lots of other technologies, yet we've managed to live with them. At least commercial drones can be easily regulated, I'm more concerned about hobbyists who DGAF about rules.

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LifeBuilder t1_j203jv4 wrote

PVC piping and fishing net stock is about to blow up. Invest now!

1

GoneFishing36 t1_j208pbg wrote

Deliver within 60 mins? People can't plan one day in advance anymore, nor live one day without perfection.

These 5 lbs drones must be freaking loud, terrible trade-off for quiet, quality living space.

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Ch3t t1_j2097sg wrote

First order one of these. Then wait for your neighbors to go to work. Yell in their window, "Alexa, order a PS5 and use Amazon Prime Air. Now you have a PS5 and a sweet drone.

Dammit! I forgot to logout. I'll be getting recommendations for butterfly nets for the next 10 years.

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fade2black244 t1_j20bmso wrote

Just waiting for someone to remote hack them and invent a fancy new way to steal packages.

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Tedstor t1_j20hykv wrote

Good. I’m tired of this slow ass one day delivery.

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themastermatt t1_j20jeas wrote

Could they maybe start with accurate delivery times on the current process? Infuriating to see "Delivery tomorrow!" that changes after ordering to "really meant day after tomorrow", then to "ah, to be honest - itll be 3-5 days now" ending in "sorry, its delayed - but if you havent seen it in another few days let us know!"

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skywalkerze t1_j20qd1y wrote

Let's never invent anything new, 'cause we suck at regulating tech.

Don't try to improve regulations and governments, why would you do such a thing?

Sounds like you are seriously saying we shouldn't have invented telephones and airplanes.

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chicano32 t1_j20qsy9 wrote

How are you going to tell the difference between amazon order and drugs/weapons being shipped when someone can copy the look of an Amazon drone?!

−1

tobor_a t1_j20x3ai wrote

Yeah, I don't think my town will get it :c we have two or three amazon warehouses across the town and a pretty busy municipal airport and a base. Anyways, not like I need anything form amazon that bad that I couldn't jsut go to walmart/target in town for.

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Chrisppity t1_j20yh82 wrote

I live in DC. This will never see the light of day where I live, but it makes sense for rural places.

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lvsnowden t1_j210tmt wrote

You could always move to a less populated area, like the woods.

EDIT: Someone complains about delivery trucks all over the road and you tell them to move to the woods. You complain about drones flying over your roof and I suggest moving to the woods and I get downvoted. Weird.

−1

626c6f775f6d65 t1_j210v7u wrote

Be great if it works. As I type this I’m still waiting for a package that was due December 23, then bumped to 24, then delayed until yesterday, and now showing due tomorrow. It shipped over a week ago from a warehouse in the same state. 60 minute delivery when they can’t even get it three hours away in a week? C’mon.

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disasterbot t1_j2119ao wrote

Open source plans for electronic jamming gun please.

1

bigsnow999 t1_j211lwc wrote

What are the mechanisms they use to prevent slingshots from pitch pirates?

0

Gilthu t1_j214oed wrote

Great, now the homeless people will final have stuff after they reinvent the crossbow and longbow.

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heybart t1_j2160ev wrote

Yeah and tax payers get to foot the police bill for being Amazon's private security guards

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Cryptolution t1_j2179c2 wrote

>You realize that delivery vehicles make more noise and smog and clog more streets, right?

USPS just announced electrifying their fleet. I also don't care if streets are filled with cars that's what they are designed to provide.

The air is NOT designed for your drone delivered antifungal anal cream your too lazy to drive to cvs to buy.

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playhelicoptergame t1_j21928r wrote

These are "proof of concept" operations and studies on how to safely integrate drones into the national airspace. There are already a number of drone companies making deliveries in the United States. See: Zipline, Google Wing and DroneUp.

FAA regulations around drone operations, furthermore delivery are complex and evolving. There are a lot of uneducated assumptions in the comments. The FAA grants exemptions, waivers and special permissions to operators on a case by case safety basis and there are electronic systems in place to support this. For example, if you plan to fly within 5 miles of an airport you can file and obtain permission electronically through the LAANC system.

I encourage those looking for more information to review FAA part 107, 135 carrier operations and the public waiver database for more information.

(Source: I've worked and enabled drone delivery operations, many of which, were first of their kind in this space for over 10 years)

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XonikzD t1_j21bte6 wrote

Porch pirates going to chase these with bolos.

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Ashged t1_j21cxk1 wrote

It's insanely unsafe, legally complicated, and would fuck up private drone use, so Amazon is just trying to tart it again and again until they eventually get away with it. I hope that will take a long while, but probably not.

−2

Intelligent-Day-6976 t1_j21exwv wrote

Shotguns out it's hunting time

Do these things have emp protection?? Asking for a friend

Hehe

There was a old tail about when monies fall from the sky's

0

Ok_Fox_1770 t1_j21gyic wrote

I need a 50 lb kettle bell in 60 minutes or I’m going to Walmart! 30 drones show up all roped to it

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Revolutionary-Ad4588 t1_j21h9dy wrote

Only a few more generations and we’ll have those sweet pneumatic tubes like in Futurama

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splifflord t1_j21koav wrote

I’ll blow my brains out in front my entire family if I have to live with hearing fucking drones carrying q-tips to my neighbors house because they’re too lazy to go to the store themselves

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gneo_watanabe t1_j21m03b wrote

How ling until the first one is shot down in Texas? I bet on two weeks.

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No-Net-8237 t1_j21mxng wrote

So their guaranteed 60min delivery will also take 5 days.

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JGratsch t1_j21oayp wrote

60 minutes? Can’t even do two days any more.

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madtricky687 t1_j21s8ph wrote

I'm so good on this. I give amazon no permission to come into my airspace lol.

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Rpanich t1_j21utc2 wrote

Cars are bigger than drones and will still require more electricity?

If your argument is that you don’t want to see drones everywhere, you realise that you currently see delivery cars everywhere, and due to size, more of them?

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Rpanich t1_j21wnw8 wrote

So why do you think you’d see more drones when there would be the same amount of deliveries, now done with smaller delivery vehicles?

I live in the city, I see delivery cars all the time. And it would be great to have those roads for other uses.

0

texansfan t1_j21xgkh wrote

Definitely what every neighborhood in America needs, high pitched humming delivering packages that should be shipped together instead of being dropped off immediately, which almost is never needed because their prime now covers like 2% of their projects

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BoricPenguin t1_j21xv9x wrote

Yeah this is just asnine, and frankly I wish the government would ban this shit!

This isn't actually faster or better it's wasteful, because all they want to do is reduce the cost of hiring people and that's it.

All this will do is cause of ton of ewaste.

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cannibal_man t1_j21z1lt wrote

Yeah well I don't live in the city. At best I see one delivery driver a day.

That's better than having that shit buzzing over my head all the time.

And I don't mind if people shoot those intrusive things out of the sky, either.

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Staav t1_j2287af wrote

Inb4 ppl fuck with the drones

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PhillipBrandon t1_j22j4vx wrote

Back when Houston was turning them off (some... 12? years ago?) There was a study showing that they increased minor accidents by people stopping suddenly at reds, rather than cruising through a stale yellow that might turn as they passed, but didn't reduce the instances of major accidents of cars plowing brazenly through a solid red into traffic.

And there was a lot of hand-in-honeypot vendors taking slices of increased traffic fines etc. It looked like it was really a wealth-distribution scheme to middlemen with government contracts at least as much as it was any kind of traffic law enforcement strategy.

I've seem more favorable studies of them in the years sense, but that was the motivation I remember for having them removed once upon a time.

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Due-Reading6335 t1_j22rbyl wrote

Huge business opportunity, but you could probably contract a returns + drone drop off with amazon if you maintain the property and meet security standards

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mumblewrapper t1_j22tqzq wrote

It's so strange that Lockeford is the first place! I drive through there a lot. To say it's tiny seems like an understatement! And, yes, the sausage is good. But we drove through two days before Christmas and the line was around the block. It's not THAT good.

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cannibal_man t1_j22yg84 wrote

> The air is NOT designed for your drone delivered antifungal anal cream your too lazy to drive to cvs to buy.

Basement hobby boys beg to differ... Either the drone gets it for them or mommy will.

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BrokenLranch t1_j22zc0g wrote

I love 4 miles outside Lockeford. It isn’t even a dot on most maps. Very rural outside the city limits which may be 2 square miles if that. It’s claim to fame is Lockeford Meat Co. which has thee best sausages on the planet. You can’t miss it, a block away from the only stop light for miles and full size cow on the roof.

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qb89dragon t1_j2336l3 wrote

My tree lined street in Oakland challenges this.

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Zear-0 t1_j23389x wrote

Id like to see one of these supersonic drones…

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GonzoTheWhatever t1_j239ll8 wrote

So…they want to get this new delivery time down to 60 minutes, and yet they can’t even consistently deliver on their current 2-Day Prime Shipping benefits??

Lol okay Amazon, suuurrreee 👌

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Words_Are_Hrad t1_j23bf4w wrote

When the first one of these has a battery failure and it turns into an incendiary bomb on someones house this program is going to die. The insurance for these things is going to preclude shipping anything but stuff like emergency medical supplies.

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londons_explorer t1_j23cp3x wrote

I think 60 minutes is crap.

I want deliveries within 5 minutes.

The products can already be boxed and attached to a drone. And then when someone orders that product, the drone takes off and flies at 100 mph to your address.

100 mph for 5 minutes is 8 miles, which covers a 16 mile diameter circle, a few of which would fully cover even large cities.

And there are plenty of drones which can fly 100 mph - world record small drones go nearly 200 mph.

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Professor226 t1_j23wz65 wrote

“Residents of both towns can sign up for the service, and Amazon will then confirm that the company can deliver safely to the customer’s address.”

You didn’t even have to open the article! Just read the comment you are commenting on.

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Comfortable-Put890 t1_j24jb7q wrote

They shouldn't be allowed anywhere. I myself am a Robotics researcher, You would not enjoy hundreds of those loud drones buzzing over your head. They are dangerous, and other problems like privacy issues, surveillance misuse, our comfort and trust long list.

These AI companies manipulate our acceptance of technology, They have been and they will always do the same

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monchota t1_j24kbnr wrote

Its not going to be effective in most places, for example my town already made laws against this.

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tbochristopher t1_j27v6vv wrote

Wait until we learn that the package drones have a camera and other sensors that have been gathering data that we never agreed to.

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AaronDotCom t1_j28iue6 wrote

They'd be both invading people's airspace to the point it can legally be shot down and/or be flying so up high any object could be possibly deadly if it falls in somebody's head

Imagine the noise pollution

1