Smartphones may be getting smaller and more powerful, graphics cards may be faster than ever and TVs may be getting more detailed than we could ever have imagined, but you know what still feels somewhat archaic? Ordering something online and then having to wait a day or two for it to arrive. Fortunately Amazon agrees that this is totally unacceptable and is hoping to begin deliveries by quad-copter drone by 2015.
While there will of course be a few issues to work out, the biggest plus point of the whole thing, is that as long as you live close to a warehouse, your order could reach you in 30 minutes or less. [yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98BIu9dpwHU']
Currently Amazon is in discussion with the United States Federal Aviation Association, to iron out any potential problems, like interference with commercial air-planes, power lines etc. Commenters on the Youtube video have also pointed out the number one danger for hardware like this though, is neighbourhood kids. Chances are to protect these drones (or at least allow prosecution if rocks were thrown at them) Amazon would need to equip them with cameras, which could mean some real privacy concerns if Amazon ends up with the fleet of these things it one day hopes to have.
My future kids will probably get these things confused with Santa
Amazon is currently hoping that the FAA will have finalised its laws and regulations for maintaining a number of commercial delivery drones by 2015, so it may not be long before certain parts of the world will be getting their orders extremely expedited.
KitGuru Says: I like the idea of this, the core concept, but if Amazon smacks cameras on them I'm not so happy. That said, imagine how cool the tracking app would be. You could login and see exactly where it was, instead of refreshing and just staring at “processing,” for hours on end.
I think you meant ‘prosecution’, not ‘persecution’ 😉