Hacker News Reader

Comment by eclipxe | Hacker News Reader

I like the placards placed in "safe landing zones". Simple solution to hard problem.

I remember when Amazon first announced the idea two years ago there was a lot of brainstorming in the hn comments and that idea was pretty popular. No idea if it influenced Amazon but would be cool if so.

*found the thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6833223

"This is just one idea. Perhaps Amazon provides you with a beacon for the drone, or you get a big QR code for the drone to target your house & they don't need pilots at all. Who knows!" -owenmarshall

And mess with your neighbor's life by placing your own landing placards in your fenced-off backyard.

I assume that could be prevented by using QR codes or something.

This fails if:

1) If you can see over the fence...

2) If it shows up in Google Maps ;)

#2 might be implausible now, but if people get really accustomed to this, I guarantee that some handymen are going to tile/spraypaint large, permanent drop points in their yards.

Yeah, wouldn't be better to have one that has encoded QR code with the package information?

How does this "mess with your neighbor's life"? I wouldn't see this being a huge concern unless you happened to place 4 or 5 orders a day.

I think the poster was implying that you trick the drone into delivering your neighbor's package into your backyard by putting the card out even when you're not expecting a delivery.

GPS is way more than accurate enough to discriminate between your backyard and you neighbours. Even with poor satellite geometry I rarely see more than 1 or 2 meter CEP when I'm up above the tree/building line.

I'm betting that by the time this is real (and assuming the shown implementation is what actually goes live), everyone will have their own personal QR code so there will be no mistakes.

Take a pic of your neighbour's QR, print a copy, profit.

Wait 40 minutes, don't get package, email support, they review footage/delivery data, see drone going to your neighbor, press charges for petty theft.

Did I say anything about keeping or even opening the packages? If the drone is using some sort of convnet or HOG to detect the landing pad, I can only imagine hilarity would ensue if its visual field were saturated with multiple copies of the target image, a sort of visual DDoS if you will...

Yeah. And even for apartments, you could use window support brackets (like those used to hang AC units, but removable).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com