This is really just an Amazon PR stunt at this stage, but are there interesting solutions to the list of problems posed though?
Navigation: Well I suppose you could do this with an app that makes you stand in a spot where you think the drone could land, take a panorama photo which a human checks and approves. The app would also make you wait for a good enough gps fix before it 'green lights' your account for drone deliveries.
Obstacle avoidance: Maybe in 5 years time the processing power will be less energy intensive? You can't rely on maps entirely, but maybe laser scanned neighbourhoods and low resolution radar or sonar which aborts the delivery if inconsistencies are detected?
Safety: Maybe it drops down a virtual 3m 'tube' from obstruction free public airspace into the spot you send in from your app to get your landing site approved. The app would make you pick a space to land in that was suitable and you lay out a target pad. If the target pad visual looks wrong, e,g. black and white squares obscured because kid left a bike on it, then delivery is aborted. Maybe catastrophic loss of power or large downwards deceleration causes an airbag to deploy.
Legality: Some kind of peer to peer air traffic control standard is needed. Like a swarm of starlings.
Cost: Must be cheaper than a delivery driver, right? Not sure if its cheaper than a self driving car though.
It doesn't need to be cheaper than a delivery driver. The service would still be an enormous benefit to Amazon even if it operated at a loss because they'd be getting tons of business that would otherwise go to brick-and-mortar stores.
Comments
This is really just an Amazon PR stunt at this stage, but are there interesting solutions to the list of problems posed though?
Navigation: Well I suppose you could do this with an app that makes you stand in a spot where you think the drone could land, take a panorama photo which a human checks and approves. The app would also make you wait for a good enough gps fix before it 'green lights' your account for drone deliveries.
Obstacle avoidance: Maybe in 5 years time the processing power will be less energy intensive? You can't rely on maps entirely, but maybe laser scanned neighbourhoods and low resolution radar or sonar which aborts the delivery if inconsistencies are detected?
Safety: Maybe it drops down a virtual 3m 'tube' from obstruction free public airspace into the spot you send in from your app to get your landing site approved. The app would make you pick a space to land in that was suitable and you lay out a target pad. If the target pad visual looks wrong, e,g. black and white squares obscured because kid left a bike on it, then delivery is aborted. Maybe catastrophic loss of power or large downwards deceleration causes an airbag to deploy.
Legality: Some kind of peer to peer air traffic control standard is needed. Like a swarm of starlings.
Cost: Must be cheaper than a delivery driver, right? Not sure if its cheaper than a self driving car though.
It doesn't need to be cheaper than a delivery driver. The service would still be an enormous benefit to Amazon even if it operated at a loss because they'd be getting tons of business that would otherwise go to brick-and-mortar stores.