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Monday, December 2, 2013

Is it Really so Great?


Last nights 60 Minutes featured Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos describing the greatness of Amazon, and I am pretty much in agreement but I can’t get excited about their future plan of flying your 5-pound   package to your front door using a small drone.

The idea won’t be approved until four or five years from now, so maybe that will give Amazon the time to make it more appealing. Charlie Rose’s excitement was unwarranted.

I’m usually on board when it comes to newer and better ways of doing thing buts this idea doesn’t match the hype. For one, the customer must be within a ten mile radius of an Amazon Fulfillment Center.

I can see where the small drones might land on unsuspecting children or the family pet and it might get tangled up with a newly installed object. It might work if drone receptacle boxes were installed about 8 feet above the ground.  Amazon could pay for the initial boxes but then cities could rewrite their building codes to make sure all the newly built houses had the receptacle boxes.  Then again, does anyone want to go through all that trouble and expense to receive their package 30 minutes later?  Could a hacker divert the path of the drone?

It’s in planning stages, and I realize Jeff Bezos and his engineers are a lot smarter than I am but I came away unimpressed by what I saw last night.  I’m still a big fan and loyal Amazon customer.

8 comments:

born2Bme said...

Sounds kind of stupid to me. You're going to have gun-happy people/kids using them for target practice, people finding ways to steal the packages, etc. Of course, the company will just pass the increased costs on to their customers.

Mike said...

I thought of that but the drone could place the object in the container which would then automatically lock and be scanned as received.

We already pay extra for 1 day shipping..the drones would save the company gasoline and payroll cost and be friendly to the environment but I'm pretty sure they will be targets...Skeet anyone?

According to 60 Minutes.... Amazon doesn't make that much of a profit margin because they prefer to invest back into the company for ideas such as this drone.

Mike said...

The good part about Amazon's plan is that get to improve their software....The NY commuter train derailment could have been prevented because there is software out there that could have slowed the train down to 30 miles an hour. The company did not purchase the software.

Mike said...

The good part about Amazon's plan is that get to improve their software....The NY commuter train derailment could have been prevented because there is software out there that could have slowed the train down to 30 miles an hour. The company did not purchase the software.

Edith Ann said...

OMG! Building codes could be changed to mandate reception stations? Are you kidding me? Damn! The government is already all up in all my business! I don't need the federal government to tell me how I can receive package when I order merchandise. Next thing you know, they will be adding federal tax if I refuse to use Amazon.com. This is surely the first step toward a universal merchandise provider system. Soon they will be blocking other websites like ebay and Williams-Sonoma. We will be forced to purchase everything from Amazon.com. And those drones are probably really spybots! This has to be against our constitutional rights, right?

**The above opinion does not reflect the views of EA. Just channeling the libertarians there for your amusement**

Mike said...

And your comment worked...:-)

Did you know that now that ACA is working the GOP is now on plan B by calling it "wealth distribution?"

Edith Ann said...

They better go easy on that 'wealth distribution' business--you know that is Ted Cruz's daddy's plan for Ted to usher in the Rapture, or some such foolishness as that.

Mike said...

It’s too late; it’s already in the playbook, so if you don’t have a solution, you delay, obstruct and use talking points.

Wealth distribution can go in two directions.