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Kroger begins drone delivery on a rainy Wednesday.

All these delivery drones will need to be of a size / power that can handle more than 5lbs.
Otherwise, it's a gimmick . . . and who pays ?
Customer who doesn't have to leave the home ?
Business, who may or may not get have got the the sales anyway in traditional form ?

Not even getting into what happens when the drunks start messing with a drone within reach, or a lowering cable.
 
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All these delivery drones will need to be of a size / power that can handle more than 5lbs.
Otherwise, it's a gimmick . . . and who pays ?
Customer who doesn't have to leave the home ?
Business, who may or may not get have got the the sales anyway in traditional form ?

Not even getting into what happens when the drunks start messing with a drone within reach, or a lowering cable.
My concerns exactly. How will they prevent idiots from messing with their drone deliveries. Lets hope our society is mature enough to handle this new form of delivery. It would be nice to get pizza delivered that way though.
 
If it's only good for a mile radius from the store and five pounds (2.3 kg), I bet a rider on a E-bike with saddle bags could delivery more quicker. ?
 
Not only drunks of course, waiting for their pizza / fast food, but kids who are so inquisitive, dogs and other such.

I often wondered too, drone range = depots have to be quite thick on the ground to allow more frequent deliveries to to limited load capacity.
Might be lucky if they can get a single delivery on board at a time, a larger drone, maybe 2 ?
Depots for a long while will need people to load items, programme the automated flights, certainly to keep stock into depots . . . ironically by delivery trucks loaded with the goods required, passing by places these deliveries would be going to !!

Small truck / vans are going to be far, FAR more efficient that drones, for a long long time.
 
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I read, the delivery system is set up, that the driver attaches the package to the drone in the truck and there's a roof openning. The driver gets near the delivery address and sends the drone out through the roof, it returns and lands inside the truck. The system I read about was in a rural area with poor roads and difficult access to homes. It's a testing region of course. But they say the system is working flawlessly, in that area at least. The drones are linked to the operator via CELLULAR network.
 
Not only drunks of course, waiting for their pizza / fast food, but kids who are so inquisitive, dogs and other such.

I often wondered too, drone range = depots have to be quite thick on the ground to allow more frequent deliveries to to limited load capacity.
Might be lucky if they can get a single delivery on board at a time, a larger drone, maybe 2 ?
Depots for a long while will need people to load items, programme the automated flights, certainly to keep stock into depots . . . ironically by delivery trucks loaded with the goods required, passing by places these deliveries would be going to !!

Small truck / vans are going to be far, FAR more efficient that drones, for a long long time.
see my post #10. The trucks are close to the delivery point.
 
I read, the delivery system is set up, that the driver attaches the package to the drone in the truck and there's a roof openning. The driver gets near the delivery address and sends the drone out through the roof, it returns and lands inside the truck. The system I read about was in a rural area with poor roads and difficult access to homes. It's a testing region of course. But they say the system is working flawlessly, in that area at least. The drones are linked to the operator via CELLULAR network.

That could work, places out of the way, difficult access, places remote where a drone doing a single delivery would save time.
The nests in a factory / warehouse situation works, they use these for stock control mostly.

Sounds like a drivers responsibilities are going to be upped quite a bit.
 
Drone Delivery has always been an effective way to attract attention and gain publicity.
Not so effective at actual prcatical delivery.
 
All these delivery drones will need to be of a size / power that can handle more than 5lbs.
Otherwise, it's a gimmick . . . and who pays ?
Customer who doesn't have to leave the home ?
Business, who may or may not get have got the the sales anyway in traditional form ?

Not even getting into what happens when the drunks start messing with a drone within reach, or a lowering cable.
It depends on the value density of the products being delivered. It would take far less than 5 lbs of certain meds to justify a drone flight cost, for example.

As far as the drunks...they will be handled by insurance, just like other delivery services handle risks.

TCS
 
Those waivers are hard to get. expensive too. most people need lawyers to get them through all the hoops.
Meaning no disrespect...have you gotten one of the waivers? "hard" and "expensive" aren't well defined terms in this context.

Part of the difficulty almost certainly revolves around people not knowing how to interact with government bureaucracies. Having run a government bureaucracy, I know a bit about that! I'm currently working as a Government Contracts Advisor for the State of Nevada, helping small businesses sort through the complexities of doing business with the government.

It's likely that it's "easier" to get the second and subsequent waivers, after you've gotten the first one.

What the industry really needs is a standardized, non-waiver-based, BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) rating, similar to the instrument rating for Part 61 pilots. Based on my experience with my Mini-2s, a competent instrument rated Part 61 pilot would have zero problem flying BVLOS.

In many cases, that might be safer than obsessively squinting with microscopic focus, trying to see the little thing off in the distance.

When you go for your Part 107 license, the FAA makes it substantially easier to get the license, if you are a Part 61 pilot with a current BFR, as I am.

The instrument rating is a very close analog to what's needed to safely fly BVLOS. I've had my instrument rating for almost 40 years, and I've flown aircraft in the clouds that didn't have the awesome level of situational information provided by DJI Fly.

There should be a BVLOS path for anyone who wants to pursue it, but the path for instrument rated Part 61 pilots should be vastly simpler and shorter. Instrument rated pilots have already put in most of the work that it takes to learn to safely fly BVLOS.

Many delivery companies want this, and I'm sure they've got money and legal manpower applied to make it happen with the FAA. I just don't know the current status of those discussions.

Perhaps initially, BVLOS should be limited to rural areas, where flights could be longer, with many fewer obstructions.

In other words, it should be allowed first in places like where I live...

:)
:)

We'll get there eventually!

TCS
 
It depends on the value density of the products being delivered. It would take far less than 5 lbs of certain meds to justify a drone flight cost, for example.

Of course, plenty of medical supply deliveries happening by drone daily around the world . . . but Amazon aren't delivering (in the main) high value goods, neither are fast food companies or other (what I would call) novelty drone delivery companies.

As far as the drunks...they will be handled by insurance, just like other delivery services handle risks.

At cost to regular manned business and recreational pilots, as the public will only see drone in the story headlines.

Part of the difficulty almost certainly revolves around people not knowing how to interact with government bureaucracies.

Campaign funding (for one thing) will go a long way to helping the big box players get this 'off the ground'.

Perhaps initially, BVLOS should be limited to rural areas, where flights could be longer, with many fewer obstructions.

We'll get there eventually!

Totally agree with you, a better way to start, though the big box people would want to start ti the masses rather than the smaller demographics of rural locations . . . maybe.
It makes sense to use truck hubs / nests to launch in these sorts of areas and do out of the way less economical deliveries, and test their systems until they are less likely to have any 'side effects' of non controllable safety matters (like drunks, kids, bird attacks, all sorts of things).
At least they can work out they get from nest to client and back 100% without external conflict.

Technology will get this in the mainstream for some delivery forms eventually.
How efficiently and what forms we'll have to wait and see.

Exciting new ventures, hopefully the rest of the airspace users down low will not be tarnished by early probable failures and incidents during the learning / technology curves.
 
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Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs ?
 
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Of course, plenty of medical supply deliveries happening by drone daily around the world . . . but Amazon aren't delivering (in the main) high value goods, neither are fast food companies or other (what I would call) novelty drone delivery companies.



At cost to regular manned business and recreational pilots, as the public will only see drone in the story headlines.



Campaign funding (for one thing) will go a long way to helping the big box players get this 'off the ground'.



Totally agree with you, a better way to start, though the big box people would want to start ti the masses rather than the smaller demographics of rural locations . . . maybe.
It makes sense to use truck hubs / nests to launch in these sorts of areas and do out of the way less economical deliveries, and test their systems until they are less likely to have any 'side effects' of non controllable safety matters (like drunks, kids, bird attacks, all sorts of things).
At least they can work out they get from nest to client and back 100% without external conflict.

Technology will get this in the mainstream for some delivery forms eventually.
How efficiently and what forms we'll have to wait and see.

Exciting new ventures, hopefully the rest of the airspace users down low will not be tarnished by early probable failures and incidents during the learning / technology curves.
1) True about amazon and other deliveries. A normal development path for that service would be R & D, then testing in remote areas, and when that works, moving into more urban areas. With bigger payloads. This is going to be an evolving process, just like Sport Pilot/LSA was.

2) Public image is certainly something that will make a difference. Less of a problem in rural areas.

3) Money is the mother's milk of politics. It is what it is...

4) Evolving truck depots into drone depots is a great idea! For better or worse, driving a truck is a dying occupation. The robots will cover the long haul requirements, and the drones will cover the "last mile" requirements.

The Borg cometh!

;-)

TCS
 
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