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Drone Delivery In The News Again (Amazon and Walmart)

consultant

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Saw some articles in the news lately that always make me laugh, regarding drone delivery. I remember the last one I saw I think last year was the announcement of Dominos in India delivering a pizza to someone. These kind of things always get a lot of propellor heads all excited. Just has me shaking my head.

I definitely think there ARE some specific application for drone delivery that will continue to grow. Of these, I'd say emergency organ delivery and other emergency-type deliveries, especially in road traffic congested cities, or disaster areas. But all this coverage about retail sales order delivery is the pure definition to me of 'hype.' You don't have to spend hours of research or participate in focus groups to figure it out. I'll just throw out some no brainers off the top of my head, all assuming the airspace traffic management system challenges will have of course been solved.

1) What if you have no suitable landing area at your residence? Maybe like Tesla is putting charging stations all over the place, all homes and buildings will have drone landing pads as common as having a mailbox. How long you think THAT'S gonna take?

2) How are you going to get your delivery if you live outside the control transmission range or fuel capacity? Currently, that's typically just a few miles, realistically today, unless you're talking military drones. World is a big place, lots of people not all living in cities. Yes there is air traffic flying above us all the time that is powered by highly combustible fuel and satellite communication, but it's also being controlled by a human in constant control and as far as being over a heavily populated area, it's quite a brief/small exposure compared to a fleet of drones flying around at much lower altitudes.

3) "Hello, this is an email notification from Walmart/Amazon customer service letting you know your order delivery has been delayed due to the current wind/rain storms."

4) "Hey Johnny, I bet you can't shoot that Walmart drone that is about to land at the neighbor's house with your BB Gun."

5) "I am sick and tired of all that noise of drones landing at my neighbor's houses. Can't have a peaceful moment in my backyard."

6) "Florida man is killed by falling Amazon delivery drone." I admit this last one is not very probable but think what happens when a new model aircraft crashes and kills someone. All operations halted while the FAA investigation ensues.

The hype continues...


 
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These guys already pretty much solved the grocery delivery by drone problem ... but if you order a watermelon you might be taking some chances:

 
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The other thing to consider is how is a fleet of drones carrying one order at a time more efficient for the company as opposed to one truck carrying 100 orders at a time? This whole concept of retail sales drone delivery just doesn't make sense in my mind.

So the real question still remains WHO benefits from retail sales drone delivery and WHAT is the benefit over pre-existing delivery methods? Cost savings sure seems to me like NOT one of the possibilities if you have one order per aircraft. Seems like maybe just a premium service for people living close to the distribution center... for an extra charge, get "30-minute" delivery by drone, for people that need something (that isn't large and heavy) "right now." But we already have 2-hour Prime Now, and again, the driver can carry more than one order at a time.
 
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Yeah, once you get past the gimmicky cool factor, I don't see the practical side working out logistically or economically. So put me in the "I don't get it" column too.

But I'm still hanging around waiting to see something that changes my mind ....
 
The other thing to consider is how is a fleet of drones carrying one order at a time more efficient for the company as opposed to one truck carrying 100 orders at a time? This whole concept of retail sales drone delivery just doesn't make sense in my mind.

If you had a huge fleet of drones.
If every drone could fly autonomously.
If every drone could carry a useful capacity.
If every drone could cover at least 100 miles. (50 out and 50 back)
Fulfillment Centers 100 miles apart
If every deliverable address had a Secured Dropoff Zone. (GPS super accurate)

Order item --> Robot picks item in the warehouse --> System loads item on the drone --> Drone departs.
Drone delivers the item to Secured Dropoff Zone --> Drone returns. (all automated)

Customer receives order very quickly. Drones are buzzing all around constantly. The public is extremely annoyed. General Aviation has to stay above a "cloud" of drones except for T/O/Landing. While relaxing at home, every 4-5 minutes you hear: zzzzZZZZZzzzzzz...

Are Amazon and Walmart ready? LOL...not without a MASSIVE investment, a huge change in FAA Rules, and a giant leap in technology. So yeah, it's kinda a gimmick and just a technology demonstration at this point. I can see Drone Delivery expanding as it's being used today: Fast delivery of critical items between 2 points. (like between hospitals) The public ever accepting a largescale rollout of this annoying solution? Doubtful.
 

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