| Chris Hu said: Cool idea but not very practical I'm sure they can only properly work in ideal weather situations so no drone deliveries when its raining or high wind. Also they can only deliver to certain locations and I'm sure they can only deliver small orders (less then 20 pounds in weight). |
Actually even less than 20 pounds, IIRC Bezos said 5 pounds, but he also said that it's enough for 86% of their deliveries.
Consider also that drones have quite a short range, so I imagine they'll get launched by specialized delivery vans that will be able to decide in real time whether the drone delivery is viable or a land vehicle one is necessary. Whenever drone delivery is possible, the van will be able to make just a trip to the middle of a delivery zone and avoid wasting fuel (and possibly a lot of time if there is much traffic) to reach each address. In the suburbs and in the country, an optimised launch spot will allow to avoid long trips (possibly on winding and/or beat-up roads) to make few deliveries. Apartment deliveries, though, will be impossible, except to ones that have large enough balconies or in buildings with roofs accessible by their inhabitants. Also, probably skyscraper roof deliveries will require a successive generation of drones, with more powerful engines, larger capacity batteries and complying with stricter flight safety rules.
