It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s an Amazon drone delivering a package of popcorn!!
Three years ago, the Chief Executive of Amazon announced the company’s interest in using drones as a means for delivering packages. At the time, very few people actually envisioned a future that would actually involve such a Jetsonesque application of technology. And yet, that time is drawing nearer. On December 7, a drone left a warehouse in Cambridgeshire, England and delivered to a customer an Amazon Fire streaming device and some popcorn. Hardly a day that will impress itself as a watershed moment (as in: “I remember exactly where I was when Amazon made its first drone delivery!”), but worth noting nonetheless.
There are some doubts, however, that this can become the next, regular method for goods deliveries to occur. There are questions about how these kinds of deliveries would be regulated by aviation rules, the ways in which deliveries might be impacted by weather, and what happens when the cargo is heavy – no one wants to hear of someone squished under a set of improperly secured, drone controlled encyclopedias.
There are also concerns about what this kind of personless delivery system might mean for workers. As automation is increasingly adopted to carve out increased profits for those at the top of businesses, workers lose their jobs to machines. Utilizing drones could mean that less truck drivers are needed to deliver goods. On the other hand, less trucks on the road could mean reduced environmental impacts. It’s an extremely complex three-dimensional puzzle game, the winners of which are far from easy to predict.
Although there have been several historical drone deliveries over the past year, it seems that we’re unlikely to see fleets of quadcopters darkening the skies, delivering goods hither and thither like flocks of 3D printed bumblebees in the very near future. However, that doesn’t mean we haven’t started walking down the path that will eventually allow for the development of some of the systems in a way that can be successfully integrated into contemporary consumer culture.
And I still kind of want a drone to bring me something to read.
Discuss in the Amazon Drone Delivery forum at 3DPB.com.
[Source: New York Times]