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It seems obvious to me that Bezos took this one public so early to garner public support so that the FAA can't just sit on it forever. All of Amazon's other i

by ljd 13y ago

It seems obvious to me that Bezos took this one public so early to garner public support so that the FAA can't just sit on it forever. All of Amazon's other initiatives didn't need some federal regulator to OK it before they could start selling it. I think this is an effective solution to getting a notoriously slow agency to move on an item. No one wants to be seen as stopping innovation, not even the FAA.

vowelless 13y ago
> No one wants to be seen as stopping innovation, not even the FAA. That has been my experience. I don't deal with them directly, but we have people on our team who work closely with them when it comes to unmanned aircraft. The FAA has a comprehensive publication about UAVs: http://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/uas/ http://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/uas/
RandallBrown 13y ago
I agree. Even if Amazon doesn't end up launching its own drones, you can be sure that Fedex and UPS will eventually. That helps Amazon too.
- buckbova 13y ago
  UPS is a slow moving entity because of its enormous size and culture. Their delivery system was more or less handled manually until about 10 years ago. 15 years ago they were still using punch clocks for hourly workers. "Eventually" could mean 25-50 years from now.
- hershel 13y ago
  Fedex and UPS suffer from the innovator's dilemma which will make it hard for them to build the best drone service with the right business model because it means they'll lose money, sunk investments and jobs relative to their old business model. Anyway, this is probably a field rich with patents and amazon with their acquisition of kiva robotics and their attraction as an employer in this field with this PR, will grab quite a few patents and make it quite hard for other companies to compete.
- SimHacker 13y ago
  I know that FedEx (and probably USP) are both very interested in flying big unmanned autonomous vehicles (cargo planes) between airports.
- johnward 13y ago
  If you've ever worked with or for either of these companies you would know how "old school" they are. They can barely keep an autosorter running, I wouldn't expect them to be able to run a fleet of unmanned drones. Also I'm sure the union at UPS would have some feelings about losing jobs to robots. Source: I worked for FedEx Smartpost/Ground IT for a few years. It was absolutely terrible.
danellis 13y ago
What worries me is that whatever regulations the FAA come up with will suit Amazon just fine, but will put drones out of reach of hobbyists.
- swalsh 13y ago
  I would be surprised. Amazon has a history of developing tech for its own purposes, and then selling the tech. Their SOA architecture is now the backbone for one of the largest cloud services platform on the internet. They might be the go to supplier for commercial drones in the not to distant future, so when they work with the FAA to get them approved (which i'm sure they're doing), i'd bet they are keeping alternative applications very closely in mind.
  - louniks 13y ago
    Remember the "at Amazon, everything is a platform" Google+ post? Drones as a Service.
    - Turing_Machine 13y ago
      Oh, yeah. I could easily see them renting time on unused drones.
- superuser2 13y ago
  Rules for fully autonomous commercial flight might not (and should not) changed the rules for hobbyist, noncommercial flight. Manually but remotely piloted aircraft (RC planes) are still a huge hobby and the FAA does not currently care how automated the flight is, only that it is noncommercial and that you can see the aircraft from the controls. It's doubtful that the FAA would amend these rules rather than create a separate category for unattended commercial flight.
jds375 13y ago
Definitely my thoughts. This article takes a further look at why he announced it so early: http://gigaom.com/2013/12/02/so-why-did-jeff-bezos-pre-announce-plans-for-drone-based-delivery-now/ http://gigaom.com/2013/12/02/so-why-did-jeff-bezos-pre-annou...
TrevorJ 13y ago
This is a big part of it. Also, AMZ knows full well that they are a 900 pound gorilla. Going public with this increases the chances that the problem will be worked on by other companies as well. I see it as a similar move to what James Cameron did for 3D production in the years before he made Avatar. He was very smart about getting the industry to move in that direction so that when the time came, the tech was tested and solid.
- jacalata 13y ago
  Shame he didn't spend that time working on the rest of the movie, like plot and dialogue.
infinotize 13y ago
I really don't think the FAA is going to be in a panic over stifiling innovation after this. Probably more people are annoyed with the idea of drones buzzing over their property.

by ljd 13y ago

vowelless 13y ago

> No one wants to be seen as stopping innovation, not even the FAA. That has been my experience. I don't deal with them directly, but we have people on our team who work closely with them when it comes to unmanned aircraft. The FAA has a comprehensive publication about UAVs: http://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/uas/ http://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/uas/

RandallBrown 13y ago

I agree. Even if Amazon doesn't end up launching its own drones, you can be sure that Fedex and UPS will eventually. That helps Amazon too.

buckbova 13y ago
UPS is a slow moving entity because of its enormous size and culture. Their delivery system was more or less handled manually until about 10 years ago. 15 years ago they were still using punch clocks for hourly workers. "Eventually" could mean 25-50 years from now.
hershel 13y ago
Fedex and UPS suffer from the innovator's dilemma which will make it hard for them to build the best drone service with the right business model because it means they'll lose money, sunk investments and jobs relative to their old business model. Anyway, this is probably a field rich with patents and amazon with their acquisition of kiva robotics and their attraction as an employer in this field with this PR, will grab quite a few patents and make it quite hard for other companies to compete.
SimHacker 13y ago
I know that FedEx (and probably USP) are both very interested in flying big unmanned autonomous vehicles (cargo planes) between airports.
johnward 13y ago
If you've ever worked with or for either of these companies you would know how "old school" they are. They can barely keep an autosorter running, I wouldn't expect them to be able to run a fleet of unmanned drones. Also I'm sure the union at UPS would have some feelings about losing jobs to robots. Source: I worked for FedEx Smartpost/Ground IT for a few years. It was absolutely terrible.

danellis 13y ago

What worries me is that whatever regulations the FAA come up with will suit Amazon just fine, but will put drones out of reach of hobbyists.

swalsh 13y ago
I would be surprised. Amazon has a history of developing tech for its own purposes, and then selling the tech. Their SOA architecture is now the backbone for one of the largest cloud services platform on the internet. They might be the go to supplier for commercial drones in the not to distant future, so when they work with the FAA to get them approved (which i'm sure they're doing), i'd bet they are keeping alternative applications very closely in mind.
- louniks 13y ago
  Remember the "at Amazon, everything is a platform" Google+ post? Drones as a Service.
  - Turing_Machine 13y ago
    Oh, yeah. I could easily see them renting time on unused drones.
superuser2 13y ago
Rules for fully autonomous commercial flight might not (and should not) changed the rules for hobbyist, noncommercial flight. Manually but remotely piloted aircraft (RC planes) are still a huge hobby and the FAA does not currently care how automated the flight is, only that it is noncommercial and that you can see the aircraft from the controls. It's doubtful that the FAA would amend these rules rather than create a separate category for unattended commercial flight.

jds375 13y ago

Definitely my thoughts. This article takes a further look at why he announced it so early: http://gigaom.com/2013/12/02/so-why-did-jeff-bezos-pre-announce-plans-for-drone-based-delivery-now/ http://gigaom.com/2013/12/02/so-why-did-jeff-bezos-pre-annou...

TrevorJ 13y ago

This is a big part of it. Also, AMZ knows full well that they are a 900 pound gorilla. Going public with this increases the chances that the problem will be worked on by other companies as well. I see it as a similar move to what James Cameron did for 3D production in the years before he made Avatar. He was very smart about getting the industry to move in that direction so that when the time came, the tech was tested and solid.

jacalata 13y ago
Shame he didn't spend that time working on the rest of the movie, like plot and dialogue.

infinotize 13y ago

I really don't think the FAA is going to be in a panic over stifiling innovation after this. Probably more people are annoyed with the idea of drones buzzing over their property.