Amazon Prime Air

clairefontaine · 02-12-2013 08:01AM

Is regular prime available in Ireland yet?

Seaneh · 02-12-2013 08:27AM

Anyone who thinks this will actually happen by 2015 is an idiot.

Canis Lupus · 02-12-2013 08:33AM

Whatever about the technology to airlift small packages I can't see how an unmanned robot would successfully navigate to a persons door with all the obstacles in place in everyday life never mind taking weather conditions into account. I don't see it as viable in either a business or technological sense.

02-12-2013 08:34AM

Killer Wench wrote: »

Seriously, y'all are worried about anti-social folk who will toss rocks? I live in the US where people have guns and hand grenades. You know the first ones will be shot down because some dude thought it was a terrorist attack.

If we can do it, so can you.

I would imagine that they'll only fly to "select" locations, like a local corporate head office or high tech business parks.

I just can't see one going to a sink estate in Limerick, it would never make it back!
edit: unless it has a US army one as cover.

up for anything · 02-12-2013 08:36AM

The stuff of nightmares!

The sky would be full of the damn yokes - like wasps at the end of summer. There would have to be some noise pollution from them and then there'd be the company who for an extra charge would have them deliver a nail bomb right to your head/feet.

jester77 · 02-12-2013 08:56AM

I was already impressed with being able to order stuff before going to bed and having it delivered in time for breakfast the next morning, but this is awesome.

I remember seeing another company in California a year or 2 ago wanting to do the same with pizza delivery but they would have needed FAA approval which didn't happen. Amazon might just be big enough to pull that off.

danniemcq · 02-12-2013 09:09AM

awww I thought it was gonna be someone selling jars of air and had Spaceballs quotes ready to go.

Just heard on the news that they can deliver within a 10 mile radius or the warehouse. This could be an issue as their warehouses are so big that they might be a bit far out of town to deliver to a lot of people but its a great step forward.

Sunnyisland · 02-12-2013 09:18AM

With the bee population becoming extinct,this will bring a new buzz to the air...

General General · 02-12-2013 10:28AM

THIS is how I found out that they weren't going with my rocket proposal.

Akrasia · 02-12-2013 10:37AM

Foxhound38 wrote: »

Great concept, would never work here though. Too many anti-social scumbags who would love nothing more than a moving target to throw stones at, especially if it's carrying something belonging to someone else that they could rob if they got it down...

Presumably these contraptions wouldn't be the cheapest - they would be an absolute magnet for anti-social behaviour.

This is why we can't have nice things/book drones...

Amazon will have to give the UAVs the ability to defend themselves

Win-Win

It's a very cool idea, but I'm not sure if I want play Half Life 2 for real

Those little flying bastids were a real pain in the ass

Plazaman · 02-12-2013 10:38AM

I see some problems :-

I live in Apartment 4b on the 8th floor of a 12 storey high rise. Deliver that.

Nanny Mc Granny, 87, is pushing her 1 year old granddaughter down the street when an Amazon Octocopter goes rogue, falls out of the sky and buries itself into Nanny. Thankfully the book it was delivering had it's fall broken by the soft head of Baby Mc Granny.

danniemcq · 02-12-2013 10:43AM

Plazaman wrote: »

I see some problems :-

I live in Apartment 4b on the 8th floor of a 12 storey high rise. Deliver that.

Nanny Mc Granny, 87, is pushing her 1 year old granddaughter down the street when an Amazon Octocopter goes rogue, falls out of the sky and buries itself into Nanny. Thankfully the book it was delivering had it's fall broken by the soft head of Baby Mc Granny.

And to top it all off the book was michael crichtons "prey"

keithclancy · 02-12-2013 10:55AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSp7CipN1pw

Would totally work in Russia

Canis Lupus · 02-12-2013 01:06PM

I want my stuff delivered by big dog.... I want an ontime delivery and be terrified at the same time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNZPRsrwumQ

Dyr · 02-12-2013 01:07PM

obviously amazon have never heard of a black widow gat

meoklmrk91 · 02-12-2013 01:22PM

Canis Lupus wrote: »

I want my stuff delivered by big dog.... I want an ontime delivery and be terrified at the same time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNZPRsrwumQ

That thing is really cool but Jesus it has the creepiest legs ever.

I like the idea of amazon drones, amazon is my favourite company by far, they have everything, really decent prices and exceptional customer service. Also I like the idea of my crap being delivered really fast, I can see them offering this at no extra cost other than a prime membership, it would be perfect for impulse buys.

robinph · 02-12-2013 01:29PM

Amazon have got their months wrong, this "service" is clearly a spoof video and they have released it 5 months early.

Check back on 1st April.

BillyMitchel · 02-12-2013 01:31PM

Wonder if there is any jobs going to fly the plane or would it just be stick in a number ?

Flying toy planes all day, serious craic.

Tzardine · 02-12-2013 01:41PM

BillyMitchel wrote: »

Wonder if there is any jobs going to fly the plane or would it just be stick in a number ?

Flying toy planes all day, serious craic.

All automated I presume.

I was lucky enough to see the Boeing Scan Eagle system in use in Iraq. What the automation can do is unreal. And that was nearly 5 years ago.

Holsten · 02-12-2013 02:04PM

Scary? Why?

It's awesome! Super speed deliveries, hell yes!

ressem · 02-12-2013 02:20PM

The TED video on how CPU power, sensors and good programming can make these devices highly adaptable to changing conditions and damage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2itwFJCgFQ

A cheap physical dropbox with a few reflective guides and a radio device as ID to get the extreme accuracy at the end of the journey is available today.

The noise wouldn't be much more than the delivery trucks.
But with 18 minutes flight time in good conditions, 5-7 KM.

You can get a basic version of software and hardware for this purpose at low cost compared to a few years ago.
http://plane.ardupilot.com/wiki/arduplane-setup/download-and-install-mission-planner-software/

Agricola · 02-12-2013 02:26PM

Seen a lot ads for Amazon around lately. This must be just a ploy to boost awareness of the brand in the run up to Christmas. Maybe at some time in the future but for now it sounds impractical. How would that thing cope with pre post code rural Ireland!

Zascar · 02-12-2013 02:34PM

I think this is brilliant and I'd say we will see this at some stage, but probably not as soon as 2015. The only problem I see, is that as much as I love Amazon, if this comes out, I'll never go into town or to a shop to buy something when I can get it delivered in 30 minutes from Amazon. The retail stores will suffer even more - and its never good to have one company with a monopoly. Unless other retailers start doing the same?

robinph · 02-12-2013 02:38PM

ressem wrote: »

But with 18 minutes flight time in good conditions, 5-7 KM.

Hands up who lives within 5 km of an Amazon distribution centre?

Edit: The range of those helicopter things would barely get it from one end of their own facility and back again a couple of times before they would need to be recharged.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=amazon+distribution+centre&espv=210&es_sm=93&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=qo2cUu7QBoap7QaojIHwBA&sqi=2&ved=0CE0QsAQ&biw=1062&bih=730

This is just a marketing ploy to get people talking about Amazon, in the same way that O'Leary is happy for people to keep spouting the stories about Ryanair charging for the use of in flight loos just so that people keep talking about his brand.

02-12-2013 02:38PM

clairefontaine wrote: »

I just ordered something from amazon yesterday and it gave me a delivery date of Dec 12. I've never had a 12 day estimated delivery time from them before. I figure as more people get prime, those will get priority which will push back the dates of free delivery further and further.

I bet prime air will cost around 1k a year.

They were quoting me some mad delivery dates last month but it ended up arriving a lot sooner, same for a friend. I think they might just be pushing the quoted dates back
Depends on stock as well - they posted one of the items to me even sooner as it was in and the other stuff I wanted wasn't

Jonny7 · 02-12-2013 02:38PM

One of the more stupid practical ideas I've ever come across

Clever marketing idea though

ressem · 02-12-2013 03:00PM

robinph wrote: »

Hands up who lives within 5 km of an Amazon distribution centre?

Edit: The range of those helicopter things would barely get it from one end of their own facility and back again a couple of times before they would need to be recharged.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=amazon+distribution+centre&espv=210&es_sm=93&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=qo2cUu7QBoap7QaojIHwBA&sqi=2&ved=0CE0QsAQ&biw=1062&bih=730

This is just a marketing ploy to get people talking about Amazon, in the same way that O'Leary is happy for people to keep spouting the stories about Ryanair charging for the use of in flight loos just so that people keep talking about his brand.

Definitely. The question of the future is whether there will be scaled up drone planes that are used to carry stuff on the long hauls and whether it would work out cheaper than the trucks. Unlikely.

Or whether personal cars will end up being automated so they are not left parked for 90-95% of the day, but used to carry out chores like collecting your parcels, moving the cost neatly from the business to the customer.

And whether it could be used by An Post etc to reduce the cost of delivering to one-off houses off the beaten track.

robinph · 02-12-2013 03:14PM

Yep, this kind of thin may well happen in the future, but it is definitely not about to be launched by Amazon and it is a looooooog way off. It is just a bit of BS by Amazon to get free advertising in the run up to chrimbo.

lertsnim · 02-12-2013 03:17PM

NIMAN wrote: »

Will never happen, but its good advertising for Amazon, I'm sure this will be viral now.

Don't be so sure about that. It's already happening in Australia.

whiskeyman · 02-12-2013 03:43PM

would be class for pizza / fast food deliveries.

Amazon Prime Air

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