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Amazon's drone delivery program is the joke it always sounded like. (news.yahoo.com)

submitted 1 year ago by FlyingSquid@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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Only one item can be delivered at a time. It can’t weigh more than 5 pounds. It can’t be too big. It can’t be something breakable, since the drone drops it from 12 feet. The drones can’t fly when it is too hot or too windy or too rainy.

You need to be home to put out the landing target and to make sure that a porch pirate doesn’t make off with your item or that it doesn’t roll into the street (which happened once to Lord and Silverman). But your car can’t be in the driveway. Letting the drone land in the backyard would avoid some of these problems, but not if there are trees.

Amazon has also warned customers that drone delivery is unavailable during periods of high demand for drone delivery.

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[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 69 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Meanwhile in Rwanda:

There have been 13,000 deliveries to date and it has been estimated Zipline drones distribute 65% of blood outside of the capital city, Kigali.

https://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/news/zipline-ghana-medical-supplies-drones/?cf-view

Just because Amazon is doing a terrible job of it, doesn't mean it's a job that can't be done.

[–] PizzaMan@lemmy.world 31 points 1 year ago

Shit like that is also a far, far better use of airspace/resources

[–] Omega_Jimes@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Zipline is doing some freaking amazing things!

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 year ago

Yeah. Personal deliveries to your home may never be a practical thing. But, Zipline shows that there is a niche for drone deliveries that's pretty amazing.

[–] Tangent5280@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

It's real macgyver stuff. Maybe it doesn't fit into the cyber aesthetic, but its some pretty fucking amazing stuff. I hope more such applications get found in time.

[–] nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ok. That's incredible. This is more what I saw for the technology's potential. Not cutting all corners possible to make delivery of disposable goods worse.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

If you're interested there are some great videos about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOWDNBu9DkU