How Americans feel about drone delivery

[Jagerbomb52]

New research dives deep into American attitudes on drone delivery

A fresh report that has come out today claims that a solid majority of Americans (58%) are in favor of drone delivery.

dronedj.com

 

[dirkclod]

Well that was from just over 1000 people and no telling how many of them own drones.

 

[mobilehomer]

Here's one that is absolutely against it!!! Against all autonomous vehicles.

 

[zeusfl]

Here's one that is absolutely against it!!! Against all autonomous vehicles.

With much respect. I would like to hear your reasons.

I believe that emergency situations like antivenom delivery, medicines, blood delivery, and many other time-sensitive situations are beneficial and even can save lives.

 

[mobilehomer]

With much respect. I would like to hear your reasons.

I believe that emergency situations like antivenom delivery, medicines, blood delivery, and many other time-sensitive situations are beneficial and even can save lives.

The technology for safety is not there. Just look at the best tracking drones, Skydio, still have trouble avoiding small branches, wires and colors that are similar to the background. Delivery drones are not Mavic 3 size, they are much larger. Can you imagine one coming in contact with power lines crossing a busy highway?
Your emergency scenarios are already being handled. BUT, they are also special cases that deserve per event evaluation.

 

[Rich QR]

I believe many Americans have been in favor of flying cars for around 70 years or so. Like drone delivery, it is an idea that has been pitched many times, and it sounds good until you start to look at all the practical details.

The idea of me being the only one to have a flying car in current airspace sounds great. The idea of 50% of the citizens of a major metropolitan area commuting to work every morning in their flying cars is utterly terrifying, unless we have a super-reliable air traffic control system in which everyone participates, with 100% compliance. That many vehicles with their wake turbulence, downwash, lack of brakes, and no lane markings, flying over populated areas, is a recipe for disaster.

Drone delivery isn't that much different.

I'm not challenging the idea that many people may want it. But when they see what a widespread deployment of it is really like, their opinions might change.

I'm even willing to admit that my opinion of it could change, if it ends up being implemented in a way that is much better than I anticipate.

When we survey people about their opinion of a technology that nobody has ever seen in widespread use, we're merely getting their opinions of what they've been led to believe about the technology.

 

[YVRGUY]

For emergency responses fine, but, for pizza delivery…NOT. If drone delivery is accepted life as a recreational drone pilot will change big time. Zone and heights restrictions will change, flight plans may be required, communication (detection) between commercial , recreational, and emergency drones could be required.

In the right hands and for the right applications drones are the kitty’s behind.

 

[zeusfl]

I am sure in pre-existing routes or repetitive routes will not be a problem. I can only see problems in a new route.
But flying from pre-determined point A to B consistently will be very secure. I mean, warehouse to warehouse or hospital to hospital.

 

[dirkclod]

With much respect. I would like to hear your reasons.

I believe that emergency situations like antivenom delivery, medicines, blood delivery, and many other time-sensitive situations are beneficial and even can save lives.

That I believe in 100%

 

[dronerdave]

I believe many Americans have been in favor of flying cars for around 70 years or so. Like drone delivery, it is an idea that has been pitched many times, and it sounds good until you start to look at all the practical details.

The idea of me being the only one to have a flying car in current airspace sounds great. The idea of 50% of the citizens of a major metropolitan area commuting to work every morning in their flying cars is utterly terrifying, unless we have a super-reliable air traffic control system in which everyone participates, with 100% compliance. That many vehicles with their wake turbulence, downwash, lack of brakes, and no lane markings, flying over populated areas, is a recipe for disaster.

Drone delivery isn't that much different.

I'm not challenging the idea that many people may want it. But when they see what a widespread deployment of it is really like, their opinions might change.

I'm even willing to admit that my opinion of it could change, if it ends up being implemented in a way that is much better than I anticipate.

When we survey people about their opinion of a technology that nobody has ever seen in widespread use, we're merely getting their opinions of what they've been led to believe about the technology.

Yep they had some futuristic ideas that never panned out.

 

[AnzacJack]

The technology for safety is not there. Just look at the best tracking drones, Skydio, still have trouble avoiding small branches, wires and colors that are similar to the background. Delivery drones are not Mavic 3 size, they are much larger. Can you imagine one coming in contact with power lines crossing a busy highway?
Your emergency scenarios are already being handled. BUT, they are also special cases that deserve per event evaluation.

So are you against all autonomous vehicles?
Or are you just against autonomous vehicles with current technology?
There is a big difference.
i can assure you there is better tech than skydio, but your probably just talking about consumer drones.

I dont forsee gimmick applications like pizza delivery being in anyway feasible, but the applications of autonomous land air and sea vehicles are limitless

 

[dronerdave]

I possibly see large payload site to site multi-rotor operations, maybe small rural delivery, or emergency applications. My guess is there would still some human monitoring going on during the flight as well as requiring some sort of approved flight plan for any large unmanned aerial type vehicle flights. I doubt any kind of hobby drone would qualify at this point in time except in emergency situations. I've posted about a small city north of me that is going to start small drone delivery to homes (a Amazon test program) but I'd bet even these little drones will be highly regulated as well as more complicated in design than the DJI drones I'm flying. Surely they have thought of the liability a large unmanned anything poses if it contributes in taking human lives... even if automation is proven overall safer than human control. We'll see. At this point in time I don't want to be a passenger of a pilot-less, or driver-less vehicle. As far as the question of whether I want drone delivery, all I can say if it doesn't limit my future flying hobbies, I'm OK with it. The last thing I want is the FAA to limit my flying privileges I currently have now. But if I had a choice on delivery, I'd rather have someone put the package on my porch, something a drone will have a hard time doing.

 

[simsurf]

I am sure in pre-existing routes or repetitive routes will not be a problem. I can only see problems in a new route.
But flying from pre-determined point A to B consistently will be very secure. I mean, warehouse to warehouse or hospital to hospital.

But it would be much easier if they just put a blanket ban over a big delivery area....

 

[zeusfl]

But it would be much easier if they just put a blanket ban over a big delivery area....

And why is this?

 

[zeusfl]

Autonomous vehicles have been demonstrated that work much more efficiently. In fact, on the road, if nonhumans are involved in driving autonomous vehicles can be near perfect. Impatient humans doing knife edge cuts, invading lanes, blind spot changes, and fatigue are the most common accidents.

Sleepy and drunk driver crashes can be avoided with autonomous driving. If all the cars were autonomous the traffic will not exist since everything will be synchronized.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Flytrex is a big player in drone delivery. Food and retail items. They just got approved for a larger area. From 40,000 to nearly 100,000 potential households. It would be interesting to watch a full launch and delivery of a package. The whole process.

Flytrex gets FAA okay to double drone delivery areas in NC, Texas

Drone delivery specialist Flytrex announces it received FAA approval to double the radii of operation in its North Carolina and Texas markets.

dronedj.com

Flytrex | FAQ

Delivering from your favorite restaurants and grocery stores, straight to your backyard. Contact-free, lightning-fast, and safer than ever before.

www.flytrex.com

 

[Rich QR]

I am sure in pre-existing routes or repetitive routes will not be a problem. I can only see problems in a new route.
But flying from pre-determined point A to B consistently will be very secure. I mean, warehouse to warehouse or hospital to hospital.

Why does repetition make it safe?

The hard problem is rarely direct navigation from one place to another. That's easy to solve with something as straightforward as Litchi.

But when the airspace becomes crowded with many delivery drones, they've got to avoid each other. They also need to avoid birds, helicopters, thunderstorms, hailstorms, kids' kites,
etc.

That need to avoid changing hazards is the same whether the route is being flown for the first or thousandth time.

 

[Chaosrider]

The technology for safety is not there. Just look at the best tracking drones, Skydio, still have trouble avoiding small branches, wires and colors that are similar to the background. Delivery drones are not Mavic 3 size, they are much larger. Can you imagine one coming in contact with power lines crossing a busy highway?
Your emergency scenarios are already being handled. BUT, they are also special cases that deserve per event evaluation.

Safety isn't a binary thing. It's not like "you have it or you don't". Things can be more, or less, safe. The important question is, how much safety is "good enough"? What are the odds of a major failure?

The key to successful autonomous operations, including drone delivery, is iteration. Don't try to get it done perfectly before doing it at all. In this case, drone delivery could initially start only along well defined, well-mapped routes. A good architecture might be to have drones fly autonomously to pre-defined airborne staging areas, and then have a human pilot take over to fly the last mile.

There are many ways to solve these problems. The key to success is to start flying now, and resolve the problems as they come up. Sort of a SpaceX approach to de-bugging a new technical operation!

 

[Chaosrider]

Why does repetition make it safe?

The hard problem is rarely direct navigation from one place to another. That's easy to solve with something as straightforward as Litchi.

But when the airspace becomes crowded with many delivery drones, they've got to avoid each other. They also need to avoid birds, helicopters, thunderstorms, hailstorms, kids' kites,
etc.

That need to avoid changing hazards is the same whether the route is being flown for the first or thousandth time.

That's what RID is for.

There needs to be automated systems that track where the drones are, overseen by humans. As the automated systems get better, you'll need fewer humans.

That's pretty much the way the IFR system works for manned aircraft now.

 

[vindibona1]

Personally I am not in favor of drone delivery. Our small DJI drones make a certain amount of noise that is unavoidable. Imagine the noise froma larger drone carrying a payload much larger than what our little drones can handle. Then imagine the frequency of those larger drones in your vicinity.

Bottom line: Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Often technology, while helping us humans in one area often hurts us much more in others. Those of us who lived before smart phones, text messaging and social media might be able to relate to how less stressful life was back then, though certain tasks were less efficient. JMO