Delivery by Drone??????

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WattWick

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I'm with the publicity stunt crowd on this one.

If the recipient is already within 15-20 minutes flight times distance from where the package is... a bike or car messenger could just as well do the job... and could deliver several packages on one run with far less weight limitations. Problem is, most people are not 30 minutes away from an Amazon warehouse.

Drones will definitely be part of our futures. I just don't think we're quite there yet. However! The technology is already at a point where hobbyists can have some fun. There's something called FPV flying, where you use a transmitter to beam video back to the operator. Either to a display, or better... to a set of goggles. Dug up a clip from one such flight. Not mine, mind you.

 

suspectK

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Zippoz

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Those knuckle draggers may have good reason to be concerned. Safety and privacy come to mind right off the top of my head.

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Yeah, I'm glad that I'm not the only one who has thought of this. I don't need another bajillion cameras spying on me, let alone on a mobile platform. This will just widen the gap for casual spying, and will replace jobs done by real people. I'm not sure I'd want to use such a service, with the way data mining is used these days.

I'm with the publicity stunt crowd on this one.

If the recipient is already within 15-20 minutes flight times distance from where the package is... a bike or car messenger could just as well do the job... and could deliver several packages on one run with far less weight limitations. Problem is, most people are not 30 minutes away from an Amazon warehouse.

Drones will definitely be part of our futures. I just don't think we're quite there yet. However! The technology is already at a point where hobbyists can have some fun. There's something called FPV flying, where you use a transmitter to beam video back to the operator. Either to a display, or better... to a set of goggles. Dug up a clip from one such flight. Not mine, mind you.



I think it serves a dual purpose. Also, WOW that is beautiful footage. I didn't realize FPV was this advanced. Makes me really wish I could afford that... Amazingly well put together video also, the ending is great.
 

Criticalmass

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Bad idea. IMO. Put a lot of people out of work. Issues with big brother tapping into cameras on these things. Issues with birds, falling drones. damaged packages. I know Amazon has been testing this for a while but I'd rather look up into the sky and see wildlife, not hundreds of drones flying overhead. :/
 
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catalinaflyer

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My other "hobby" happens to be drones, I've even posted a couple pictures of my job on here taken with said drones.

So will this ever happen, maybe someday but years from now. However with that being said, fully autonomous flight is already available to anyone and everyone. I have a couple fully autonomous multi-rotor helicopters that I can via a Bluetooth link to my android phone tell it where I want it to go, how high, what I want it to do when it gets there and where to land when it's done then I just hit the mission start button and it's gone. Everything I have used in building these so called drones is available off the shelf to anybody. As for the computer code, again, free and open source.

Amazon may someday do this on a VERY limited basis to very select customers but in the end this is just a marketing ploy and it's working, it's being discussed right here on a e-cig forum as well as hundreds of other forums.

Some people don't leave home without their favorite mod, I don't leave home without my drone however there are states I travel through where even having it my truck is against the law.

Drone Brain
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Drone
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Parking lot patrol with drone
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Picture from drone (My truck is the blue one, taken near Avoca, WY)
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Savannah, GA by drone
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More work pictures from drone
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catalinaflyer

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I think it serves a dual purpose. Also, WOW that is beautiful footage. I didn't realize FPV was this advanced. Makes me really wish I could afford that... Amazingly well put together video also, the ending is great.

That particular video is shot from a fixed wing plane, not a multi-rotor. I have a hybrid glider/powered plane with a 3.3 meter wingspan that carries a full 1080p video camera as well as another FPV camera downlinked via high powered 900 MHz transmitter and control it with a ultra long range 433 MHz radio transmitter. I can stay aloft for well over an hour and fly out more than 30 miles away. We're even experimenting with autonomous where once airborne and at altitude the plane can fly without any radio communication then return to loiter over the field till control is taken back by ground based equipment and landed. Endurance is only limited by battery capacity and at the rapid rate of LiPo advancement we will see times out in the 3 to 4 hour range soon.
 

catalinaflyer

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No doubt there will be pizza delivery drones on the way soon, and I'm quite sure the enterprising Sinaloa cartel is looking into drug smuggling drones already. Fly [moderated] over the Rio Grande, drop it right where your guy is, fly the drone back for another load. I'd be real surprised if it's not already being done.

Already happening and has been for well over 10 years. They take off the shelf radio controlled aircraft, load them up and send them across the river to crash beyond the normal patrol areas. The sacrifice a $500 airplane to move $50,000 in illegal merchandise.
 
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