9 ms·

What a nightmare: thousands of little drones flying around our heads, causing privacy issues, unwanted noise and danger, for what? To deliver non-critical stuff

What a nightmare: thousands of little drones flying around our heads, causing privacy issues, unwanted noise and danger, for what? To deliver non-critical stuff in a short time? Who needs the newest Kindle or those cool tennis socks in 30 min? Let's keep our priorities straight, if needed through drone taxes.

dkopi 10y ago
I don't think letting a stranger enter your building / yard is less of a privacy / danger / noise concern. As for: "non-critical stuff" - is that really up to you decide for others what's critical for them or not? If they're willing to pay extra for drone delivery, it's critical enough for them. Also - as far privacy goes: "The company also claims it's working on ways to make the machines quieter and it says they won't have cameras on, just sensors."
- gonvaled 10y ago
  > I don't think letting a stranger enter your building / yard is less of a privacy / danger / noise concern. Well, nobody enters without ringing, and I receive them at the door. And danger: I'll let you know as soon as parcels or drones start dropping and damaging property or injuring people. > If they're willing to pay extra for drone delivery, it's critical enough for them. Exactly, that's why you need the taxes, to price in societal costs. And make some deliveries drone-tax-free (blood delivery)
  - dkopi 10y ago
    While drones dropping out of the sky is indeed a scary thought, delivery trucks killing people on roads is already a reality: http://www.nj.com/middlesex/index.ssf/2016/06/5-year-old_boy_run_over_killed_by_ups_truck.html http://www.nj.com/middlesex/index.ssf/2016/06/5-year-old_boy... As for "pricing in the societal costs" - that's called paying insurance.
    - gonvaled 10y ago
      > that's called paying insurance. Not really, because there are costs which are not apparent, or are a matter of policy. - What is the cost of annoying me with drones' noise? I hope the government decides it is non zero. - I do not know about drones, but I know about a past blunder: what is the cost of operating a nuclear plant? Now it is clear that it must include the non-negligible costs of disposing of nuclear waste and dismantling the nuclear plant. The operators of nuclear plants have reaped the benefits and left society with the costs. I very much hope that we are not so naive this time, and society is able to properly evaluate all costs, and pass them to the operators.
      - dkopi 10y ago
        "What is the cost of annoying me with drones' noise" By that logic, you should be able to tax people for having children or buying a dog.
        gonvaled 10y ago
        Having children and dogs is already expensive, and has other "opportunity costs" which somehow balance the positive sides, so that I do not end up with 3 thousand dogs and children fooling around my house. All-included Prime Delivery with zero delivery costs (because drone costs will tend to zero, and anyway Amazon is happy to cover the costs because they save on other delivery methods), will have as a consequence an unbound amount of underpants flying over my head. So I need some externalities added by the government to balance the situation.
IanCal 10y ago
If there's a 1kg box at a shop within 5-10 miles of me, why should the delivery of that require a real human to take a one ton box of metal all the way here through the middle of a busy town? > unwanted noise and danger I'd be interested in knowing the noise, danger and pollution that comes from regular (or rush) deliveries.
- sevenless 10y ago
  But that truck can deliver hundreds of those boxes at a time. So it's one truck versus a huge swarm of drones. (Some of which may drop that 1kg box on someone's head.) Difficult to imagine a case for this delivery method other than pure instant gratification.
  - throwawayReply 10y ago
    When you're dealing with 1 hour deliveries, those trucks aren't delivering "hundreds of boxes", they're actually still making a lot of smaller trips because they can't batch efficiently due to delivery time commitments.
    - sevenless 10y ago
      It's beyond a joke that Amazon, a company famous for not paying tax, profits from massive wasteful exploitation and over-use of taxpayer-funded roads to make very fast deliveries, contributing to traffic and pollution everyone else has to put up with. If anything this makes a strong case for a luxury tax on ultra-premium delivery services.
      - gonvaled 10y ago
        Or for a proper pricing of infrastructure costs: everybody who uses the roads should pay for them, according to the use they make (heavier trucks should pay more than bicycles)
        sevenless 10y ago
logicallee 10y ago
oooh, I like this game. Can you do the following: - Autonomous cars that act as a safe caravan (which enables higher speeds and, due to communication, instant responses which human drivers can't even match in theory - since a human driver cannot know that a car three cars ahead has just this millisecond started to break heavily, but software can transmit that. According to the DMV "the average driver's reaction time is .75 seconds ... or 1 car length for every 10 mph".) - internet of things which let me be a master in my home with all my stuff being servants. please, tell me why I should with my own hands do stuff that devices could do by myself at my command. Tell me why it's better to be a servant than an king/queen. if you do these I'll have more stuff for you to shit on. This is so amazing, it is really fun to watch. In the case of drones, for example, this is the coolest thing from the future anyone could possibly have imagined, it is something that a 60's comic book about the future would have shown about a future utopia. i'd love to see how you shit on other stuff.
- gonvaled 10y ago
  I am not saying drones should not happen, just that they should be used for important stuff, not for your latest underpants. Or, better said, you can get your latest underpants with drones, but you should cover all costs of doing that, including costs set by the government, which I hope will be high because I do not want 3 thousand underpants flying over my head all the time.
  - logicallee 10y ago
    I do want 3 thousand underpants flying over my head all the time, swarms of drones, SWARMS of them. It'll be like sci-fi. what could be cooler? also could you shit on autonomous cars and also the Internet of Things, I'd like to see how you object to other cool stuff that means we're living in a utopian future that sci fi authors could only have dreamed about.
    - gonvaled 10y ago
      Since you so much want it, pay for the taxes for delivery of your 3 thousand underpants, then we are quit. Your future is not Utopian, it is Dystopian: worsening the quality of living of most of the population, while those with resources legislate for themselves no-fly zones, and have their beautiful silent gardens. While they are enjoying dinner in their perfectly tended gardens, they are cashing in by convincing you that you really want 30 minute delivery of products you do not even need. But what can you do? You are living in a shitty neighborhood full of shitty smell and noise, and those products are so cheap and cost nothing to deliver and anyway there are already 2999 drones flying around my head, why not relieve yourself a bit and buy the 3000th underpants, which anyway you need because you have already used the ones you have for three weeks?

dkopi 10y ago

I don't think letting a stranger enter your building / yard is less of a privacy / danger / noise concern. As for: "non-critical stuff" - is that really up to you decide for others what's critical for them or not? If they're willing to pay extra for drone delivery, it's critical enough for them. Also - as far privacy goes: "The company also claims it's working on ways to make the machines quieter and it says they won't have cameras on, just sensors."

gonvaled 10y ago
> I don't think letting a stranger enter your building / yard is less of a privacy / danger / noise concern. Well, nobody enters without ringing, and I receive them at the door. And danger: I'll let you know as soon as parcels or drones start dropping and damaging property or injuring people. > If they're willing to pay extra for drone delivery, it's critical enough for them. Exactly, that's why you need the taxes, to price in societal costs. And make some deliveries drone-tax-free (blood delivery)
- dkopi 10y ago
  While drones dropping out of the sky is indeed a scary thought, delivery trucks killing people on roads is already a reality: http://www.nj.com/middlesex/index.ssf/2016/06/5-year-old_boy_run_over_killed_by_ups_truck.html http://www.nj.com/middlesex/index.ssf/2016/06/5-year-old_boy... As for "pricing in the societal costs" - that's called paying insurance.
  - gonvaled 10y ago
    > that's called paying insurance. Not really, because there are costs which are not apparent, or are a matter of policy. - What is the cost of annoying me with drones' noise? I hope the government decides it is non zero. - I do not know about drones, but I know about a past blunder: what is the cost of operating a nuclear plant? Now it is clear that it must include the non-negligible costs of disposing of nuclear waste and dismantling the nuclear plant. The operators of nuclear plants have reaped the benefits and left society with the costs. I very much hope that we are not so naive this time, and society is able to properly evaluate all costs, and pass them to the operators.
    - dkopi 10y ago
      "What is the cost of annoying me with drones' noise" By that logic, you should be able to tax people for having children or buying a dog.
      - gonvaled 10y ago
        Having children and dogs is already expensive, and has other "opportunity costs" which somehow balance the positive sides, so that I do not end up with 3 thousand dogs and children fooling around my house. All-included Prime Delivery with zero delivery costs (because drone costs will tend to zero, and anyway Amazon is happy to cover the costs because they save on other delivery methods), will have as a consequence an unbound amount of underpants flying over my head. So I need some externalities added by the government to balance the situation.

IanCal 10y ago

If there's a 1kg box at a shop within 5-10 miles of me, why should the delivery of that require a real human to take a one ton box of metal all the way here through the middle of a busy town? > unwanted noise and danger I'd be interested in knowing the noise, danger and pollution that comes from regular (or rush) deliveries.

sevenless 10y ago
But that truck can deliver hundreds of those boxes at a time. So it's one truck versus a huge swarm of drones. (Some of which may drop that 1kg box on someone's head.) Difficult to imagine a case for this delivery method other than pure instant gratification.
- throwawayReply 10y ago
  When you're dealing with 1 hour deliveries, those trucks aren't delivering "hundreds of boxes", they're actually still making a lot of smaller trips because they can't batch efficiently due to delivery time commitments.
  - sevenless 10y ago
    It's beyond a joke that Amazon, a company famous for not paying tax, profits from massive wasteful exploitation and over-use of taxpayer-funded roads to make very fast deliveries, contributing to traffic and pollution everyone else has to put up with. If anything this makes a strong case for a luxury tax on ultra-premium delivery services.
    - gonvaled 10y ago
      Or for a proper pricing of infrastructure costs: everybody who uses the roads should pay for them, according to the use they make (heavier trucks should pay more than bicycles)
      - sevenless 10y ago

logicallee 10y ago

oooh, I like this game. Can you do the following: - Autonomous cars that act as a safe caravan (which enables higher speeds and, due to communication, instant responses which human drivers can't even match in theory - since a human driver cannot know that a car three cars ahead has just this millisecond started to break heavily, but software can transmit that. According to the DMV "the average driver's reaction time is .75 seconds ... or 1 car length for every 10 mph".) - internet of things which let me be a master in my home with all my stuff being servants. please, tell me why I should with my own hands do stuff that devices could do by myself at my command. Tell me why it's better to be a servant than an king/queen. if you do these I'll have more stuff for you to shit on. This is so amazing, it is really fun to watch. In the case of drones, for example, this is the coolest thing from the future anyone could possibly have imagined, it is something that a 60's comic book about the future would have shown about a future utopia. i'd love to see how you shit on other stuff.

gonvaled 10y ago
I am not saying drones should not happen, just that they should be used for important stuff, not for your latest underpants. Or, better said, you can get your latest underpants with drones, but you should cover all costs of doing that, including costs set by the government, which I hope will be high because I do not want 3 thousand underpants flying over my head all the time.
- logicallee 10y ago
  I do want 3 thousand underpants flying over my head all the time, swarms of drones, SWARMS of them. It'll be like sci-fi. what could be cooler? also could you shit on autonomous cars and also the Internet of Things, I'd like to see how you object to other cool stuff that means we're living in a utopian future that sci fi authors could only have dreamed about.
  - gonvaled 10y ago
    Since you so much want it, pay for the taxes for delivery of your 3 thousand underpants, then we are quit. Your future is not Utopian, it is Dystopian: worsening the quality of living of most of the population, while those with resources legislate for themselves no-fly zones, and have their beautiful silent gardens. While they are enjoying dinner in their perfectly tended gardens, they are cashing in by convincing you that you really want 30 minute delivery of products you do not even need. But what can you do? You are living in a shitty neighborhood full of shitty smell and noise, and those products are so cheap and cost nothing to deliver and anyway there are already 2999 drones flying around my head, why not relieve yourself a bit and buy the 3000th underpants, which anyway you need because you have already used the ones you have for three weeks?