First commercial drone delivery

Sporky

FX_Munkee said:

I really like donuts

£170 would buy you lots of donuts.

ICBM

Clarky said:

know anyone that has a WWII pom pom gun?

I know where there's an original WWII searchlight, and it wouldn't shock me if the owner had the rest of the kit as well...

lloyd

Sporky said:

lloyd said:

@Sporky I think you've more faith in humans than me

Quite possibly!

It also depends on what the drones have onboard; if they have cameras (surely they'd have to?) then anyone attacking or trying to steal one would be recorded. They could easily be bricked if stolen, making it fairly pointless to steal one, and they only need to fly 10m or so up to avoid being hit by thrown stones or bottles.

That leaves people roaming the streets with bows & arrows or guns...

Camera's are fairly easily nullified by wearing a hoodie and mask, i think in my misspent yoof I'd have had the Black Widow out-fairly good range, or just pulled the string they lowered the cargo with.....I think it's the stuff onboard that would be the target rather than the drones themselves. I'm, not saying 95% of drones are going to be pirated, i just think they would, in certain areas, be very much targeted. Most areas would be fine, drone flies in high, goes to the backyard, lowers it's cargo and flies off.

stickyfiddle

thomasross20 said:

Skynet.

Nah, drones are more Blade Runner than Skynet, which is cool.

We'd need multiple AIs getting online combined with self driving cars, autonomous military hardware, walking robots and web-linked cameras everywhere is Skynet.  Errr, hang on. Hmmm. Oh dear...

Clarky

ICBM said:

Clarky said:

know anyone that has a WWII pom pom gun?

I know where there's an original WWII searchlight, and it wouldn't shock me if the owner had the rest of the kit as well…

awesomely cool

Seymour1

Why go to all that effort when you can put out a landing mat to attract them?

"When it reaches the delivery address, it comes down vertically onto a special landing mat that the buyer will place on their property"

From

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36887325

ICBM

Clarky said:

ICBM said:

Clarky said:

know anyone that has a WWII pom pom gun?

I know where there's an original WWII searchlight, and it wouldn't shock me if the owner had the rest of the kit as well…

awesomely cool

Actually… I was thinking… I bet some enterprising geek could use a searchlight reflector and a microwave transmitter to build a beam weapon capable of frying a drone's electronics in flight.

Clarky

ICBM said:

Clarky said:

ICBM said:

Clarky said:

know anyone that has a WWII pom pom gun?

I know where there's an original WWII searchlight, and it wouldn't shock me if the owner had the rest of the kit as well…

awesomely cool

Actually… I was thinking… I bet some enterprising geek could use a searchlight reflector and a microwave transmitter to build a beam weapon capable of frying a drone's electronics in flight.

interesting science, but still less fun than a SAM.. lol..

mudslide73

It'll only take a personal injury claim when one crashes due to being poorly maintained... ouch!

RobDavies

mudslide73 said:

It'll only take a personal injury claim when one crashes due to being poorly maintained... ouch!

....imagine the claim when a drone gets injested into an A380 engine on a westerly take off from Heathrow, forcing the plane to crash into Windsor castle....

Seriously, from an ATC perspective, drones are a pain in the arse.  Some fucknut was flying one around Lambourne recently, forcing aircraft holding for Heathrow, to take evasive action. 

dindude

I'm not sure that people trying to steal them would be the issue, especially if they make them next to useless to anyone but the original owner/user. After all, you could say the same about cars - look at them all parked on every street corner, can't believe people leave 20k worth of personal posession out like this. Of course, some get nicked, most don't. We do still live in a civilised society fortunately.

The bigger issue will be when one falls out the sky and kills someone, or likewise a package that it is carrying.

jonnyburgo

Imagine the ensuing hilarity when Parcel Farce get hold of these

Clarky

I talked this over with wife and she said that a drone flying over your garden is trespass
she agreed that anti aircraft defences are a reasonable solution

speshul91

Sporky said:

lloyd said:

@Sporky I think you've more faith in humans than me

Quite possibly!

It also depends on what the drones have onboard; if they have cameras (surely they'd have to?) then anyone attacking or trying to steal one would be recorded. They could easily be bricked if stolen, making it fairly pointless to steal one, and they only need to fly 10m or so up to avoid being hit by thrown stones or bottles.

That leaves people roaming the streets with bows & arrows or guns...

Black widow fitted with power bands will probably out a ball bearing through one at that range. 

Chalky

So a kid knocks down a drone with a catapult or air rifle or brick or whatever. What happens then? Sirens as the police arrive in minutes? No. Kid walks away with drone or just bragging rights to his mates. Will the police turn up to investigate later? No. Ain't got enough coppers to investigate house and car break-ins so who cares about a drone?

Amazon can let Gibson guitars go walkies and never come back and all they do is not renew the delivery driver's contract.

lloyd

I think a lot of people are missing the point that it's not the drone people will be targeting, it's the goods being delivered....Kids will shoot them down whether they have goods loaded or not though, i know I would have.

Moe_Zambeek

Interesting times ahead. They also note Amazon have some form of patent on mobile 3D printing vehicles, so the drones are probably just a temporary phase...drones -> commercial 3D printing -> domestic 3D printing -> 3rd world war -> sticks and flint tools.

FX_Munkee

jonnyburgo said:

Imagine the ensuing hilarity when Parcel Farce get hold of these

  I can almost see the e-mail from Yodel now... Safely Delivered To: "on roof"

professorben

Clarky said:

I talked this over with wife and she said that a drone flying over your garden is trespass
she agreed that anti aircraft defences are a reasonable solution

Your wife sounds cool. 

professorben

What if you have a pool?