[HN Gopher] Troubled Amazon drone delivery program faces latest ...
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Troubled Amazon drone delivery program faces latest challenge:
Annoyed residents
Author : rntn
Score : 21 points
Date : 2024-08-17 18:13 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.cnbc.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.cnbc.com)
| blakesterz wrote:
| This made me wonder how long ago Bezos had announced they were
| going to do this drone delivery thing. I would've guessed 4 or 5
| years, but it was 2013. During a 2013 "60
| Minutes" interview, Jeff Bezos, who was still Amazon's CEO at the
| time, famously predicted that Amazon's patented delivery drones
| could be operational within five years.
|
| https://www.commercialuavnews.com/drone-delivery/what-the-la...
| leobg wrote:
| Well, it was before he met his new wife, wasn't it? It seems to
| me that coincided with his shift of priorities.
| Animats wrote:
| People in _Texas_ wanting tougher regulation of noise. Who would
| have thought?
|
| Relevant Dust reference: [1]
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHjgJWYj4Pk
| bobthepanda wrote:
| It is like people saying Houston has no zoning, which is
| technically true, but they just use other mechanisms to
| restrict land use in the same manner, like deed covenants and
| parking minimums.
| https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/article/...
| layer8 wrote:
| I don't understand how anyone ever thought this could be a
| workable idea.
| downut wrote:
| We had an asshole neighbor fly a quite large drone over my wife
| working in her garden and she was terrified. It was shockingly
| loud. I had a very strong desire to reach for the 20 gauge.
| Apparently that asshole behavior is legal!
|
| I hear about things like this delivery program and yes I just
| die laughing that it could be considered a good idea.
|
| Drone noise destroys the wilderness concept too.
| deepsun wrote:
| Flying above your lawn might be legal, but loud noise and
| privacy invasion might be illegal, regardless of technology
| involved. Call the cops next time.
| bradgranath wrote:
| I was pretty upset to find out that the FAA considers
| shooting at _any_ aircraft a felony, including drones that
| are stalking you or flying above your property.
| HarryHirsch wrote:
| Anyone who believes that the government is on their side
| needs to have their head examined.
| rolph wrote:
| stock up on fishing line. nothing compels you to clear the
| way for drones on your own property.
| rightbyte wrote:
| > I had a very strong desire to reach for the 20 gauge.
|
| As the guy maybe living next to your neighbor, please
| consider a water hose if the urges get too strong.
| vinnymac wrote:
| Especially when much more practical ideas have been under our
| feet: https://www.pipedreamlabs.co/
| achow wrote:
| I always wondered why people were not thinking of noise when they
| think of package delivery drones. Even the garden variety light
| weight drones makes quite an amount of noise.
|
| This is the same reason that 'flying cars', which in many sense
| are big drones, is very unlikely to be an everyday thing.
| jameshart wrote:
| Sure, but to be fair it's not like UPS trucks are silent.
| akira2501 wrote:
| The UPS truck engine doesn't need to come up to nearly full
| power to park in my driveway. The driver doesn't ever need to
| "floor it."
| thebruce87m wrote:
| All the delivery drivers on my street seem to drive at full
| power while flooring it.
| rjsw wrote:
| I'm starting to see electric delivery trucks.
| akira2501 wrote:
| They don't care about you, the quality of the experience, the
| quality of the delivery. They just want to save money on labor.
| Everything else seems to be a secondary consideration to them.
| madaxe_again wrote:
| I can't help but think they're doing this in the wrong places. I
| get that areas dense with consumers might seem like the ideal
| market to deploy in, but the marginal utility over a van plus the
| noise issue makes it less attractive.
|
| Where I earnestly think this could shine is in rural areas,
| particularly those where tortured terrain makes the roads a pain
| in the ass. Parts of Appalachia and the northwest spring to mind
| in the U.S.
|
| Where I live in Portugal, my nearest city is 12km as the crow
| flies - or 55km by road. I literally cannot get mail delivered
| where I live, and have to drive 20km (6km as the crow flies) to
| the village post office to collect it, and I'm not alone in that.
|
| Air seems like a no-brainier here, and I'd wager there would be
| induced demand and few people to bother.
| NavinF wrote:
| Drones that fly that far would be too expensive
| seneca wrote:
| As I understand it, public airspace starts at about 500 feet from
| ground. Is a delivery drone flying lower than that over your
| property trespassing?
|
| I would personally be furious to have these things flying around
| my home. Noise aside, these things almost certainly have cameras
| streaming back to Amazon.
| twp wrote:
| Little-known fact about current drone deliveries: you can only
| deliver to people with a garden. People with gardens are a very
| small percentage of the population.
|
| Until Amazon (or others) can solve delivering to a balcony or a
| letterbox, they'll not be able to deliver to high-density
| population areas.
| Fargren wrote:
| I have a patio and a balcony in my apartment. I would love if
| they could use them.
| failTide wrote:
| rooftop delivery bays might become a thing
| ollien wrote:
| What constitutes a garden? Does a small front lawn count?
| geor9e wrote:
| Europeans use the word "garden" in the place where Americans
| would use "yard"
| jdietrich wrote:
| _> Bryan Woods, College Station's city manager, said at the
| meeting that city officials ran tests of a Prime Air drone and
| found it had noise levels between 47 and 61 decibels._
|
| That's surprisingly quiet. I don't know the situation in Texas,
| but 40% of the EU population is exposed to road traffic noise
| exceeding 55 dBA. My own back garden exceeds 60dBA for most of
| the day, with regular peaks closer to 70 dBA due to railway
| noise.
|
| https://www.who.int/europe/news-room/fact-sheets/item/noise
| 3np wrote:
| I imagine the higher frequency makes a difference at the same
| dBA?
| dws wrote:
| Imagine that every so often, without warning, a 47-61 db house
| fly buzzes somewhere in your house. I'd grab a swatter and hunt
| it down before it disturbed me again.
| IshKebab wrote:
| Replace "drone" by "car"... I think it's a legit complaint but I
| also think people don't remotely care enough about noise
| pollution to give up the convenience. On average anyway.
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