Drone Deliveries

I don't think so! Are you stupid?

Amazon and the Government hit the BBC headlines today with a story about delivering your Amazon purchases by drone. The most surprising part of the article was they could only think of 3 main issues to solve before this becomes a reality.

In short the 3 Big Problems:

1.  Can you opeate drones safely beyond "line of sight" the current rules say a pilot has to be able to see the aircraft at all times.
2. How can you build a drone that won't bump into things?
3. Who can you build a system where one pilot is responsible for many drones?

Testing Ground

Amazon are proposing to use here as a testing ground because the rules are more flexible. Or is it perhaps that the lawyer culture is not quite as profound here as in the states thereby making any compensation claims vastly reduced in comparison with the USA. There will be accidents and claims.

How will it work?

When it reaches the delivery address, it comes down vertically onto a special landing mat that the buyer will place on their property. "So you could have parcels popped into your back garden for security."

Sheffield University proffessor Noel Sharkey has grave concerns and he is not alone. Perhaps Amazon are not thinking of delivering to towns and cities where gardens are very small or non-existant or perhaps the buyer lives in a flat or apartment block. Perhaps the garden is open plan and is not allowed fences, not very secure then is it. This is clearly just more drivel than reality or ought to be. If you would like to read the BBC article please click the link.

Is it a waste of time?

Why is our Government wasting time and money on this 'pie in the sky idea' sorry drone in the sky idea.

Get Amazon to try it out at home first and when they haven't killed anyone with it let them try it.

The biggest challenge they will have is reliable software that dose not need constant updates. So Google, Microsoft and all other mainstream software companies are out of the frame.

Gerry