Re:The slow collapse of Amazon’s drone delivery dream
by maxerickson on Wednesday August 04, 2021 @07:33PM
(#28067804)
Yeah, I live in a relatively rural part of the US and can drive hundreds of pounds of stuff at 60 miles an hour to almost anywhere within a few hundred miles.
That doesn't eliminate rapid delivery of small packages as a business model, but it really constrains what is worth shipping using a drone that can carry a couple of pounds.
Re:The slow collapse of Amazon’s drone delivery dream
by Robotbeat on Wednesday August 04, 2021 @08:34PM
(#28068272)
Right. But a lot of Amazon deliveries are single packages, and probably most of them are within the ~4 pound weight limit of current Zipline drones. 80mph, straight-line one-way delivery without requiring a dedicated human driver is pretty effective for rural delivery (and the drones have a range of 300km per charger, currently). But it really is more like Starlink than fiber. It's better suited to underserved rural areas where it's impractical to do single-package delivery.
And I think the current ~$15-20/delivery price for Zipline is too high to be terribly practical for most items, but in a rush (and given 24/7 availability), it's absolutely worth it. I can think of many personal instances where a $15-20 delivery charge would easily be worth it to trim hours off of delivery time.
I think at this point it's likely safer (i.e. to pedestrians, etc) than delivering the same item via truck. I really do think this has a future, and I'm glad that they've reached a sustainable level of operations in Rwanda and Ghana.
Amazon is in the business of delivering bulky and heavy packages, often of low value and importance, and poorly-but-cheaply packed into oversized cardboard boxes. I can't imagine a very large percentage of Amazon deliveries would be in any way suited to drone delivery, especially when you've got to limit it to destinations with a suitable landing/drop zone, within a certain range of a depot but away from dense urban areas (too high-risk to operate in)