Amazon to suspend delivery service that competes with UPS, FedEx

Re:Amazon to suspend delivery service that competes with UPS... by kaydub on Tuesday April 07, 2020 @09:55PM (#22809372)

I think this study jumps to many unsubstantiated conclusions in their estimates.

> We assume that operating costs for personnel, loading, and monitoring will be approximately the same per package for truck as for drone delivery.

but at least they included

> There are additional drone costs such as: setting-up and running the drone delivery stations, the investment in research and development, and lobbying the FAA. Other costs include: buildings and land associated with the drone stations, computers and monitoring software systems for drone flights, computer technicians and drone monitors on site, robotics engineers for maintenance and upgrades to drones on site, utility costs of running the building, logistics management team to oversee operations, potential insurance and legal fees associated with drones, and potential air and/or radio frequency rights for drones, etc. There is also the potential for legal costs in some of the following situations: drones are found operating in unauthorized airspace, drones are shot down by civilians, a drone lands in an unauthorized space, etc

There's also mention that the drones can only deliver up to 5lb packages.

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Re:Amazon to suspend delivery service that competes with UPS... by ethagknight on Tuesday April 07, 2020 @10:03PM (#22809408)

Also, I prefer my packages delivered to my door on the porch, not the middle of the yard.

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Re:Amazon to suspend delivery service that competes with UPS... by Spooky23 on Wednesday April 08, 2020 @09:32AM (#22812769)

That's a big reason why the hand-wavy stuff is nonsense. The limitless number of exceptions will add a ton of cost, and instead of grunts in trucks you'll need an army of analysts and developers.

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Re:Amazon to suspend delivery service that competes with UPS... by imtringued on Wednesday April 08, 2020 @04:55AM (#22811210)

I don't have a yard and I share my porch with other people.

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Re:Amazon to suspend delivery service that competes with UPS... by dannyw on Tuesday April 07, 2020 @11:09PM (#22809677)

Nothing stopping a drone from delivering a package to your porch.

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Re:Amazon to suspend delivery service that competes with UPS... by grogenaut on Tuesday April 07, 2020 @11:36PM (#22809806)

My porch roof and rail and that huge ass rhododendron do. I'd have trouble landing a drone there myself without a 1" box attached

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Re:Amazon to suspend delivery service that competes with UPS... by dsfyu404ed on Wednesday April 08, 2020 @07:38AM (#22811970)

For durable packages there's no technical reason the drone can't sling it between the roof and rail and it's not like delivery drivers don't routinely lob small packages not marked as fragile. Considering how fun to test that one would be I doubt the team responsible is gonna let that feature request ticket sit around collecting Jira dust for long.

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Re:Amazon to suspend delivery service that competes with UPS... by ethagknight on Wednesday April 08, 2020 @01:03PM (#22814771)

Oh theres lots of things stopping a drone delivering a package to my porch, including but not limited to me, I dont want Amazon's drone blowing junk all over the place on my front porch, messing up door decorations, flower pots, whatever it is. Getting caught on a branch, a gust of wind blowing it into a column and causing property damage, my dog grabbing it (my dogs catch birds in the yard, they will certainly hunt this thing). I know the ideal scenario from drone delivery is magical but reality is had, same with autonomous vehicles.

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