Delivery Drones Are a Bad Idea

By James Brumley, published in Opposing Viewpoints in Context, 2016

Drones in Amazon’s Future?
In a development that was once something only hypothesized in the cartoon/fantasy world of The Jetsons, Bezos says the company is developing airborne Amazon drones to deliver many of the online retailer’s goods to its paying customers.

That’s right. Amazon feels it’s only a matter of time—and not even much of it—before card-table-sized octocopters will be dropping off purchases right at your doorstep. Once the delivery is made, the drone will fly back to its distribution center to pick up and deliver the next payload.

Amazon drones are a completely ridiculous and unworkable idea, of course, and will (no pun intended) never get off the ground anytime in our lifetimes.

Here are the three biggest reasons Amazon drones are going to be grounded before ever taking flight.

1: The coverage areas for Amazon drones are inherently full of airborne hazards.

It wasn’t one of the underscored details of the 60 Minutes interview, but the proposed battery-operated drone that Amazon is working on only has an operating range of about 10 miles from its takeoff point; the service will only be available in fairly metropolitan areas near an Amazon hub.

It’s not really a customer service problem, as nobody expects the company to lose money just to offer the delivery option in rural areas. Besides, rollouts of all sorts tend to begin in metropolitan areas and work their way outward.

No, the problem with populous areas—where the service makes fiscal sense—is that these areas can be loaded with tall buildings, power lines, cranes, birds and a million other things that could (literally) get in the way. And that’s partially why …

2: Any in-flight failure will turn into a disaster.

While it would be inaccurate to say in-flight failures are common for these electric octocopters, it wouldn’t be inaccurate to say failures do happen from time to time. And, unlike failures in airplanes where the plane at least has a shot at being glided to safety, a failure on a couple (or more) of the delivery drones’ eight rotors means a five-pound package—in addition to the weight of the drone itself—becomes a rock falling out of the sky.

What happens when—not if—it lands in the middle of a busy road, or worse, lands on a moving car?

It’s a remote possibility, but so are lighting strikes, and those kill about 50 people per year. Of course, lightning has the benefit of being an uncontrollable product of nature.

Were there no alternative, it might be a case where the public simply had to suck it up and deal with the risks. However, with a trio of safe, viable delivery-to-door services readily available though, one Amazon drone-driven death is bound to be viewed as one too many.

3: When it’s all said and done, autonomous drones can’t do complex jobs, or adapt, as well as people.

Litmus test: Would you ever fly in an airplane that didn’t have a pilot on board, but instead was flown wheels-up to wheels-down by a real-live person?

Some people would say “yes,” but most people know the value of a real pilot (or pilots) is in being there to solve problems that aren’t programmed or put into an algorithm.

Well, surprise! Amazon’s airborne ferries are intended to be unmanned and unpiloted.

That might be OK in the controlled setting of, say, the parking lot of Amazon’s R&D [research and development] center. It would be a little unnerving, however, to know that unmanned and unpiloted Amazon drones made regular passes over the playground of your kids’ school.

There’s a reason people still do exceedingly important and potentially dangerous jobs—people remain better at them than computers.

Or, think about it like this.

Delivery drones can’t ring a doorbell, retrieve a signature or nestle a package behind a storm door on a rainy day. But Amazon’s deliveries are primarily going to be metropolitan areas, mostly to apartment buildings and office buildings? That’s even worse. How’s the service going to do any better than drop the parcel at the front door of what’s apt to be a very big and well-trafficked building?

Bottom Line
Amazon drones face a host of problems in addition to what’s been mentioned above. A few other serious considerations include a litany of regulatory hurdles, as well as what happens when people start trying to knock these drones down for their payloads.

Amazon might have gotten some flashy PR [publicity], and probably rankled the likes of FedEx and UPS [United Parcel Service]. But you won’t have to start watching the skies for Amazon octocopters anytime soon.

Delivery Drones Are a Good Idea

By Christa Avampato, published in Opposing Viewpoints in Context, 2016

The media world is buzzing with the news about Amazon’s drone delivery development dubbed Amazon Prime Air. In an interview between Charlie Rose and Amazon CEO [chief executive officer] Jeff Bezos on 60 Minutes, the world learned that Amazon’s goal is to use drones to deliver orders to customers in 30 minutes—faster than pizza delivery! …

“It will happen,” said Bezos. “Next year is optimistic. Maybe more like five years.” Bezos, perhaps one of, if not the, most ambitious and determined business leaders of our day, relentlessly pursues opportunities on the fringes and seems much less concerned about cost than most other CEOs. Amazon invents the market and then does its best to move it, alter it, and adapt as quickly and efficiently as possible. This drone R&D [research and development] news stirs thoughts of the opportunities that consumers and businesses face should the drone delivery mechanism become a viable option.

Groceries
Amazon spent five years perfecting their food delivery system that’s akin to FreshDirect, Peapod, and other similar services. This summer [2013] it expanded to Los Angeles from its native Seattle. The window of possible delivery time is three hours long.

Both of my local grocery stores, Whole Foods [Market] and West Side Market, offer to deliver my purchases to my home if I don’t feel like carrying them. Their delivery window is two hours, so I rarely utilize it. Milk that’s two hours old isn’t an appetizing prospect, though Amazon puts those kinds of items in temperature-controlled tote bags that it picks up with the next delivery. My local grocery stores don’t offer that option.

With efficient packing, faster turnaround, and more precise scheduling, drones could take the place of the mammoth delivery trucks and make grocery delivery the new norm.

Prepared Food Delivery
In New York City, where I live, prepared food delivery is a way of life for many people. GrubHub and Seamless are lifelines. When I spent the summer in LA, I learned that prepared food delivery is a luxury and a rarity. With drones, the benefit of just-in-time prepared food could become commonplace.

U.S. Mail
The U.S. Postal Service is an iconic symbol of our country, though every year it runs a significant deficit. In 2012, it lost $15.9 billion—$11.1 billion of that went to prepayments on future retiree benefits. This year, the loss amounted to $5 billion. While a significant improvement in total over last year, it didn’t have the retiree benefit payments concerns of 2012, and that means it’s a slightly higher loss from operations.

Package and mail delivery in all forms could be made cheaper and faster with drones in a time when the federal government could use every extra dollar it can find to work on issues such as education, the environment, and health care. By extension, services like UPS [United Parcel Service] and FedEx could also benefit from drone package delivery.

Insurance Claims Adjustments
Speaking of Hurricane Sandy, it took nearly a year for some victims to have the damage to their property assessed. The holdup? There are just so many FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] claims adjustors to go around.

Outfitted with the right technology, drones could eventually supplement claims adjustment officers. We use them to take pictures in outer space. Some schools of journalism use them now to explore areas deeply affected by environmental events. Drones can take us to places we can’t go on our own, and they can get us there much faster with less expense and without sacrificing our personal safety.

Humanitarian and Medical Supplies
As much as I love the items I order on Amazon, I rarely need them in 30 minutes. Certainly I want them faster, though it’s not a matter of life or death that I get the new Malcolm Gladwell book immediately.

For items like medical and emergency supplies, we need technology like drones. Some victims of Hurricane Sandy waited days for supplies. It took a week to get desperately needed items to the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan. Those affected by drought and famine in the developing world can go months without food, proper drinking water, and medical items.

Of course there are other complications beyond logistics such as politics, customs, and security, though logistics certainly play a part in slowing down the process. Surely if we can eventually get a book to someone in 30 minutes, we should be able to do something to improve the distribution of humanitarian relief.

Bottom Line

Jeff Bezos made more than an announcement about his company’s latest technological development. He gave us a glimpse into the future that is not only possible but also probable. Drones have the potential to lower cost [and] environmental impact, depending upon their power sources, traffic congestion on the ground, and delivery time windows while increasing tracking capabilities, precision scheduling, and our ability to get to places that are difficult for us to reach in person.

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