whinfell said:
Article in the UK Telegraph - Nine ways it go horribly wrong
I particularly like this tweet:
#Amazon's #drone delivery concept is awesome! I'll never have to leave the house to go skeet shooting ever again.
:lol: :lol: :lol:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolo...nes-nine-ways-it-could-go-horribly-wrong.html
Some good points in there, but some are a bit silly:
1) Hacking
We've had phone hacking, email hacking, computer hacking, so what's to stop drone hacking? Those with nefarious intentions could obtain all your personal Amazon data by tapping into the delivery drone.
Why would a drone need your personal Amazon data? All it knows is that it's flying from point A to point B, releasing cargo and then flying back to point A again.
Yeah, well, maybe Americans are just going to have to learn to stop shooting things if they want reliable services...
Obviously the drone application is new, but we've had
easements (rights-of-way) in law for centuries. Easements are considered property in themselves, so you could quite easily sell (or rent) the right to fly a drone over your property if you wanted to. Of course your neighbor would then sell
their air space for a few bucks less and then you'd drop your price and and so on until you'd eventually both decide that you like having stuff delivered by drone in thirty minutes flat and decide it's not really worth worrying about.
Either that, or Amazon could just say they won't deliver anything to your address, either by drone or by post, if they can't fly over your land, and as a private company they're perfectly entitled to decline your business if you're being an a***hole.
6) Lost bearings
If postmen can get lost or struggle to find a house, then a drone can too.
Call me a cynic, but just because Amazon's drones use GPS that does not mean they won't get lost.
And what will Amazon do then? Beyond the drone figuring out a way to return to base, and have another go once it has been reprogrammed, it's not immediately obvious.
Well, the first thought that comes to mind is that attaching GSP transponders to them and sending a guy out from the warehouse 10 miles away to pick up any that happen to get lost would seem like a pretty obvious answer to "what happens?" ("Go get it, dumbass!"). The drones would be relatively cheap so if one or two get permanently lost it won't be the end of the world.
8) Airspace restrictions
Although Amazon's drones will only have a radius of 10 miles, if they are diverted or blown off course then there is every chance they could enter into the airspace of a hostile country, triggering an almighty diplomatic spat.
Anyone honestly think Amazon is going to be deploying these to areas where they'd be flying close to the border of a
hostile country? That would be just stupid.
