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A startup in Australia, Flirtey,† has partnered with a university textbook seller to deliver books via hexacopter on/near campus. They are hoping to begin opera
by cynwoody 13y ago
A startup in Australia, Flirtey,† has partnered with a university textbook seller to deliver books via hexacopter on/near campus. They are hoping to begin operation next March. When the drone arrives, the customer presses a button on their smartphone app, and the package is lowered down to them.
†http://www.damngeeky.com/2013/10/16/14713/parcel-drone-will-deliver-packages-in-australia-from-march-2014.html http://www.damngeeky.com/2013/10/16/14713/parcel-drone-will-...
Video: http://vimeo.com/76606906 http://vimeo.com/76606906
- bandushrew 13y agoYeah, that makes sense to me. Organising something like this in a controlled area like a campus must be a few orders of magnitude simpler than organising something like this across the US. it is a fantastic use of technology, I genuinely hope amazon manages to deliver.
- downandout 13y ago> Organising something like this in a controlled area like a campus must be a few orders of magnitude simpler than organising something like this across the US. Not necessarily. When a new address comes up, a human operator might takes a look at a satellite image of the address and give the drone an appropriate location to land on the property. That data would then be stored. 15 seconds with a human, one time only, is all it would take to make this easy in most neighborhoods.
- kgen 13y agoIt wouldn't even need a human operator from Amazon, I would gladly put a marker on a map to show the drone exactly where to drop it if it prompted me upon adding a new address/checkout.
- downandout 13y agoVery good point.
- Crito 13y agoThis would also solve the "That nice flat spot in my backyard is where I installed a swimming pool a few months ago" problem.
- VolatileVoid 13y agoThat's not at all the problem. What about navigating TFRs? Class B airspace? What about failures of the rotors whilst flying over heavily populated areas? Will these things be equipped with TCAS to avoid oncoming traffic? What happens if the path-finding algorithm to get from Amazon's warehouse to your house goes batshit insane and flies it in the approach path to LAX? Who files the flight plan for each of these things? To quote Steve Yegge, "people will die... if it's YOU... you're going to be really pissed off." [0] [0] http://steve-yegge.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/have-you-ever-legalized-marijuana.html http://steve-yegge.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/have-you-ever-lega...
- danabramov 13y agoThanks for the link, I re-read it with much pleasure.
- annnnd 13y agoNot to mention UFOs. And as someone said, the drones would make archery a very popular sport again. ;)
- silverbax88 13y agoThink skeet shooting ... with a reward http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2013/12/03/last-minute-shopping http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2013/12/03/last-minute-shoppi...
- durrrrrrr 13y agoIf everyone has to go to a certain place to get these items, we could invent a revolutionary new idea. The shop.
- infinotize 13y agoYou might even get to talk to a human while you're there!
- foobarian 13y agoYou joke, but why not? Rent a small shop and put a landing pad on the roof, which then feeds a vending machine as the storefront. That also solves the authentication problem since it's easy to require a credit card swipe or a smartphone ping to dispense the package.