Commercial drones: Opinions?

[Drunkrobot]

I think we can all agree that we are living in the future. We've found the Higgs Boson, there's a rover on both the Moon and Mars, and we are seriously considering operating pizza delivery via unmanned drone.

Freedom pizzas.

Our world increasingly relies on the concept of an unmanned aircraft. The air forces and intelligence agencies of the world have been quick to note their use, and said use in spying and strikes are a hotly debated issue.

This has, of course, influenced many people's opinions on how much impact drones should have on everyday life.

First, the takeout food. Then, online shopping. Finally, the nuclear missiles.

What are your opinions on these little machines, and the role they have to play? Should we be investing in them? What jobs will they have?

[Nibb31]

I don't see Amazon or Domino's doing drone deliveries any time soon.

- They are prone to crash and cause damage or casualties.

- They are easy to shoot down or hijack or vandalize.

[TechnicalK3rbal]

I don't see many problems with them, except that having so many in a small area will inevitably lead to problems... Howver, it seems to me that many people are scared simply by the word drone, mainly because of the military using them.

Ninja'd

[NASAFanboy]

Don't get the hype about them.

Seems like a good idea.

[Ralathon]

They sound great. Since they fly they can get almost anywhere and don't cause traffic congestion. Since they're automated it saves manpower and it speeds up delivery times.

I think they'll especially shine in urban environments.

I don't know why people are so concerned and skeptical about them. Maneuvering a 3D environment isn't a trivial task, but some competent programming can solve that (And has solved it for quite a few games). People concerned about privacy don't realize that delivery companies could gather the exact same info via their normal deliveries.

The only legitimate reason for concern would be how hard drones make crime investigation. If someone loads up a drone with a grenade and programs it to fly into an atrium, good luck finding out who did it.

[TBryson2]

I have not seen (or heard) how "they" intend to control them! A typical R/C aircraft has a limited range, as (say Amazon's) would. They would need someone fairly close by anyway just to fly it

also, to get my item in 1/2 hour as proposed, i would have to live < 15 minutes from the warehouse! My closest grocery is about 15 miles away! Would not be practical everywhere. But it is an interesting concept.

[hugix]

I would love to see my food being delivered via a robot. I love robots . I can already imagine the future. I go to a website, order a pizza. Pay for it using a internet payment system. And the local pizza shop sends out a drone to deliver it .

Pizza & robots. WOW!

[John FX]

Well at least the delivery system evolution went

V1

V2

Apollo

ICBM

Pizza

I`m OK with that.

[CaptRobau]

I don't see Amazon or Domino's doing drone deliveries any time soon.

- They are prone to crash and cause damage or casualties.

- They are easy to shoot down or hijack or vandalize.

1. Are they? Must've missed the news about hundreds of drones falling from the sky. You're probably more likely to get by one of tens of thousands of cars, trucks or bikes in your city than you would from the perhaps a few hundred drones flying around.

2. Normal people don't shoot things out of the sky, especially not in the city where most of these things would be operating. And camera's would solve most crime problems. Only hacking could be a problem, but electronics will always be vulnerable to that.

[PakledHostage]

While the technology required to deliver pizzas and small packages by drone may be feasible, there are many significant practical hurdles that need to be overcome. As Nibb mentioned, they are susceptible to vandalism and there is a risk of injury and damage. There are also the equally difficult problems of how to integrate them into the existing air traffic system. Even if they are restricted to flying outside of controlled airspace in daylight VFR conditions, they would need a means to "see and avoid" other air traffic. You can't rely on the human piloted aircraft to do all of the seeing and avoiding, and the entire fleet of existing aircraft is not currently equipped with transponders suitable for electronic collision avoidance. Visually recognizing an aircraft that represents a collision threat is not an easy problem either, because it is the object that doesn't move in your field of view that is most likely to be on a collision course, and the object can often be difficult to pick out from the background clutter.

Regulatory agencies are developing legislation to govern operation and certification of unmanned aerial systems that address these and other concerns, but complying with those regulations won't be cheap. Some hobbyists may currently be illegally operating UAVs similar to those proposed by Amazon¹, but a company like Amazon will not be able to operate their fleet without adhering to the regulations. I expect that a more realistic applications of UAV technology will continue to be in law enforcement, aerial photography, wildlife management and movies.

¹By this I mean autonomous RC aircraft and FPV RC aircraft that are operated outside the restrictions that apply to RC aircraft.

[Nibb31]

1. Are they? Must've missed the news about hundreds of drones falling from the sky. You're probably more likely to get by one of tens of thousands of cars, trucks or bikes in your city than you would from the perhaps a few hundred drones flying around.

2. Normal people don't shoot things out of the sky, especially not in the city where most of these things would be operating. And camera's would solve most crime problems. Only hacking could be a problem, but electronics will always be vulnerable to that.

1) For the moment, there aren't hundreds of them flying around cities, but hobbyist RC quadcopters that are available today do crash quite often. It's part of the fun. These things run on batteries. Batteries run out. Bugs happen. Data connections fail. Interference occurs. Wind blows. Sensors fail. Things crash. If they are carrying valuable stuff, then the stuff is lost. Simply finding a place to safely drop the parcel is going to be hard in an urban area. How does it know which window or balcony is yours? How does it know that it's safe to leave the parcel there? Does it drop the parcel on your doorstep so anyone can pick it up? How does it detect obstacles, vehicles, people? What if a dog pounces on it while it's on the ground? What happens if it gets lost? Developing reliable software is going to be a huge challenge for things like this. It's much more complex than it seems.

2) You're lucky if you live in a city where 100% of the people are "normal". Of course people will be shooting these things down. Or catching them with nets or wires. Or hacking them to land where they want. The temptation of getting a day one iPhone or Xbox will be too high, especially in a country with guns freely available everywhere. And what's stopping anyone from grabbing one when it lands and reprogramming it or taking it apart to sell the parts? And I won't even get into the pure vandalism "because we can". People are stupid and making these things stupid-proof is going to be even harder than making the software reliable.

Edited December 16, 2013 by Nibb31

[Dispatcher]

This has, of course, influenced many people's opinions on how much impact drones should have on everyday life.

Well, as long as the "impact" is not literal ...

[Tommygun]

I wonder about how well they can handle sudden high winds myself.

Small children or pets trying to catch them may be an issue too.

It will be an interesting experiment though. I have mixed feeling about it, I'm not sure I want to look up on a nice day and see a beautiful blue sky full of drones.

[Camacha]

2) You're lucky if you live in a city where 100% of the people are "normal". Of course people will be shooting these things down.

Consider that in most civilised countries guns are not freely available, so I doubt that shooting them down is something you will generally see.

Also, hitting them at 300 meters or so is not trivial - even for experienced gunmen - as the target is quite hard to see, moving and small. The drone will only drop down where it needs to be. And of course, if you manage to hit it at that height, the product will most probably be broken and useless.

[DaveofDefeat]

I'm loadin my rifle in anticipation.

Though in all honesty the thought of shooting them down is silly, you could simply order something cheep then just grab the drone as it delivers it. Sold for parts, you could make a pretty penny.

Edited December 17, 2013 by DaveofDefeat

[bsalis]

I'm loadin my rifle in anticipation.

How crude. I'm going to build my own hunter-attack quadcopter and get me some free pizza.

[Ralathon]

I'm loadin my rifle in anticipation.

Though in all honesty the thought of shooting them down is silly, you could simply order something cheep then just grab the drone as it delivers it. Sold for parts, you could make a pretty penny.

i think they'd notice if all drones send to your house mysteriously end up missing...

And i doubt you could sell the drone parts for much. It's just some sensors, a few electric engines, batteries and a microprocessor after all. The microprocessor is probably worth most.

[Nibb31]

Consider that in most civilised countries guns are not freely available, so I doubt that shooting them down is something you will generally see.

My understanding is that they plan to start releasing this service in large US cities, which I don't personally consider civilized in the matter. And as suggested, you could probably down them with an RC quadcopter or a reprogrammed captured delivery drone. Never underestimate the power of nuisance. When there's a will, there's a way.

It's pretty evident that a parcel delivered by a drone is more prone to being stolen or lost than a parcel delivered by a real person.

[Ralathon]

My understanding is that they plan to start releasing this service in large US cities, which I don't personally consider civilized in the matter. And as suggested, you could probably down them with an RC quadcopter or a reprogrammed captured delivery drone. Never underestimate the power of nuisance. When there's a will, there's a way.

It's pretty evident that a parcel delivered by a drone is more prone to being stolen or lost than a parcel delivered by a real person.

Why do people think that these things will be so prone to stealing or damage? If I wanted to I could easily grab a gun and rob a delivery truck now, but I know this is a rather pointless affair with little payoff. Not to mention I like to think I'm a decent human being who doesn't like damaging property. These drones are unresponsive to intimidation, so I'd have to actually shoot to bring one down and they only carry 1 package that's most likely worth next to nothing. It's not worth the ammo, not to mention that bystanders will probably report it and most people aren't as evil as the internet makes them out to be.

Maybe in the beginning a few will get stolen for novelty sake, but once they become common I doubt anyone will bother.

[Camacha]

My understanding is that they plan to start releasing this service in large US cities, which I don't personally consider civilized in the matter. And as suggested, you could probably down them with an RC quadcopter or a reprogrammed captured delivery drone.

Like I said, shooting is probably a minor problem, as the drone is high up, small and fast moving. A hunter drone is possible, but not trivial. It takes more than a redneck with a gun to make that happen; few people will be able to do something like that. Due to the lower incidence and nature of the crime (it is probably a felony), a lot more investigative resources can be put on these cases. And a solution could be as simple as (possibly randomly) sending along a second drone, which can see what happens and sends over law enforcement. Possible, yes. But a real problem? I think not.

It does make a pretty good project in KSP though. I have already done air-to-air docking, but not at full speed

It's pretty evident that a parcel delivered by a drone is more prone to being stolen or lost than a parcel delivered by a real person.

I doubt that, to be honest. With the right strategies it can be a quite safe form of transport. It can stay high up, only making it vulnerable when at the actual adress of delivery. There someone will be present.

Let us not forget that the mailman is also far from perfect. Packages get damaged in transit (bumping around in the back of a bus), stolen by a stranger somewhere along the way or even stolen by the mailman himself. Those are all things you see happening on a daily basis.

That being said, I think it is not a feasible form of transport yet, mainly due to legal and technical reasons. Being able to do something is really not the same as doing that thing reliably.

Edited December 17, 2013 by Camacha

[jwenting]

and for all those reasons, and privacy (people mounting cameras on them to take pictures of their neighbours through bedroom windows or celebs sunbathing topless in their sheltered gardens...) many places and countries have banned those things, or severely restricted what, where, and when they can be used.

[Skyrunner27]

You could say the same thing about pointing a laser pointer into a cockpit on landing, but as much as people know you are blinding the pilot they still do it none the less.

[Tommygun]

I think the shooting threat is way over stated.

A lot of people hate pigeons in the cities, but how often do you hear about one being shot out of the air.

There is going to be the rare nut case, but this isn't going to be a real threat to this type of service.

How many people are going to risk major gun felony charges to down one of these things.

[Macca82]

I think the shooting threat is way over stated.

A lot of people hate pigeons in the cities, but how often do you hear about one being shot out of the air.

There is going to be the rare nut case, but this isn't going to be a real threat to this type of service.

How many people are going to risk major gun felony charges to down one of these things.

In the day and age we live in do you not think there is a chance an over zealous cop might make a mistake and open fire?

[TBryson2]

how often do you hear about one being shot out of the air.

Pigeons don't come bearing gifts.