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This is of course a legit concern, but what should be remembered is that it has to be balanced not against zero risk, but against the risko of the alternative.

by hannob 11y ago

This is of course a legit concern, but what should be remembered is that it has to be balanced not against zero risk, but against the risko of the alternative. Today delivery of goods mostly happen in cars. Cars have an awful lot of accidents and other negative external effects. This is of course all guess-work as long as we don't have real world data from mass drone flights, but I'd assume that drones may come out favorably in terms of accident damage.

SideburnsOfDoom 11y ago
> but I'd assume that drones may come out favorably in terms of accident damage I'm not sure that we should assume that. Anything that is 100-400 feet off the ground is inherently more dangerous than an equivalent object resting on the ground, simply because of what happens when it fails and gravity takes over. We can compare automated flying drones to manually-operated cars. We could also compare automated flying drones to automated cars. The drones scenario might end up safer than now. But I would not assume it.