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Amazon starts first drone deliveries in California

December 27, 2022

By JOSH FRIEDMAN

Amazon has launched drone deliveries, rolling out the new high-tech shipment service in a California town, as well as in a city in Texas.

The company’s new Prime Air service recently began making drone deliveries in Lockeford, a community in San Joaquin County, and in College Station, where Texas A&M University is located. Shoppers in Lockeford and College Station can place orders for Prime Air-eligible items.

After the orders are placed, Amazon’s drones fly to customers’ backyards, where they hover at a distance before dropping the package on the ground.

The drones are capable of evading objects, such as chimneys and other aircraft. They can fly at speeds of up to 50 mph and carry packages weighing up to five pounds.

“First deliveries from our new sites in TX and CA,” David Carbon, Vice President of Prime Air, wrote in a LinkedIn post. “Couldn’t be prouder of the amazing people that make up Prime Air. These are careful first steps that we will turn into giant leaps for our customers over the next number of years. Customers are our obsession, safety is our imperative, the future of delivery is our mandate, technology is unlocking that future and our people are the foundation that it all sits on! For all those who work at Prime Air…I humbly bow before you in thanks!!!”


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This is a very bad use of public space. The potential to invade privacy is to great and environmental impacts are off the charts.


2

Your 2 arguments about use of public space:


1-Invasion of privacy. I assume having a drone is more invasive than a human being dropping off a package on your front doorstep, unless you place your drone package drop off box somewhere hidden from both your house windows and the eyes of doorstep bandits.


2-Environmental impacts. This argument has me stumped. How does a drone, using electricity, impact the environment more than a fedex/ups truck? Unless said truck is an electric truck. Either way, off the charts is difficult to quantify.


Here is a link for small packages. I cannot find a study for 5 pound pckages.


3

Amazon can replace thousands of last mile delivery drivers with this innovation. You really only need one guy in a warehouse with a joy stick operating several of these airborne robots. It’s a brave new world.


-7

Oooo! Free stuff from the sky!


It’s not obvious enough right now, that the highly observable big brown truck is dropping off goodies on your doorstep, is a “Pavlov’s bell” to porch pirates?


Now, what will they think about a loudly buzzing flying shopping cart, dropping off said goodies in the front yard…if it can actually drop things in your tree filled yard?


What of the FAA? If you live near an airport, no deliveries for you! Bad weather? High winds? Too many trees? Your address isn’t on Google Earth?


I’ve a feeling the big brown truck drivers will not worry much about their jobs.


7

Impracticable gimmick soon to be realized too costly, unreliable, and ineffective. There’s a reason robots haven’t taken over everything. Even self checkout is a half failure at best most of the time lol.


5

Nice. Half-failure, at best, most of the time. Trying to pin down a number s difficult here. Half failure at best is 50%. Most of the time drops this to 40%? Not sure. But MY personal experience with self-checkout(limited, as I would prefer a human having a job) is 100%. I have never had a misread qr code or bar code. I have weighed my own vegetables. I dont purchase alcohol at robot stores. Just saying in my personal world, complaints about grocery store checkstand robots are few and far between. Wait for JWO. It will be here before you know it.


2