Drones won't replace trucks; they are aiming at the last mile. There is already a perfect way to deliver a small payload over a mile: take a bike. That's healthy, that's economical, that's ecological, that's quiet. Why isn't Amazon working on that? Because it doesn't bring them profit.
https://www.reddit.com/r/NYCbike/comments/1gw1wlj/amazon_box...
Also those are definitely going to be parked blocking the lane lol.
And autonomous ground-delivery vehicles have and are being tried. There are tons of issues with those, too.
The drones were an interesting if obvious idea to try, but I think they aren't quite practical.
Now hydrogen drone blimps might solve many of the problems, but introduce new ones. And helium is too expensive.
emergency systems need to _just work_.
Your "take a bike" solution is far superior. Thanks for your post.
For the majority of cases, it's a stupid idea. If you really want to automate away delivery drivers, self-driving vans probably make more sense, when self-driving tech gets good enough.
So are helicopters, but we use them for air ambulances as and when conditions dictate it is safe.
Amazon are piling money into this because being able to deliver a small package over the last mile with zero people involved is a massive win to them. People are lazy, unreliable, hard to manage, and demand luxuries like toilets and water. The sooner they can get rid of them the better.
How many new factories, mining operations, flights and ships will be required to start providing Amazon with the millions of new drones per year it will need to achieve this?
This is not just a quick and easy way to replace a 10 minute detour. It is a new multi billion dollar industry which uses countless tons of materials and more energy to create millions more new plastic 'things' which will cost lots in energy and materials whilst simultaneously causing lots more waste on the planet.