Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

I'm thinking this won't deliver to Australia. I'm holding on for the Amazon Prime Intercontinental Ballistic Missile.

They are waiting for United Nations approval before they can send warheads. They're ready though. You just enter the GPS coords, pay the appropriate amount of bitcoins to an onion domain, and select the 30 minute worldwide shipping.

So many potential problems with this.

Security while traveling in airspace.
Getting FAA clearance.
A collection of plastic delivery bins that are not as easy to recycle as the standard corrugated cardboard boxes.
Theft of really, really cool quad copters.
Battery life of quad copters probably really limits the radius of travel for deliveries.
Amazon would have to build way more processing centers, making costs go up.
etc...etc...etc

I was hoping for a parody tag here...

The concept of using drones as a delivery system was developed to supply people with essential goods in low infrastructure regions of the world. To see it shanghaied into this makes me want to choke a puppy.

The Future of Amazon - 60 Minutes has been added as a related post - related requested by eric3579 on that post.

I'll fill in a few et ceteras:
-noise pollution
-visual pollution
-dog & cat heart attacks (although that's a good name for a band)
-dangerous return policies
-the absurdity of dildos delivered in this fashion
etc... etc...etc.

Just because something's possible doesn't make it a good idea.

Guessing this service won't be available for the couch I'm ordering.

I really have to wonder if this isn't just marketing. The number of issues, logistic, financial and legal... makes it hard to see how this can be viable just yet. Course i know nothing about the tech so maybe it's better than i realized.

The tech for this is solid. My question is about the safety of where they do their drops... do you have to specify a large enough area, click it on a satmap of your property for example?

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

You guys sound like horse and buggy drivers complaining about those new confounded automobile contraptions.

Those were the days!

this has got to be going on over the border already

Order something just to capture the flying whatever it's called. Or, wait for your neighbor to order something and capture it...or shoot it....because spying.

In general, when it comes to new technology or scientific breakthroughs, anytime I hear that something will be ready in "just" 5 years, I know it is laughable. If we had actually achieved everything that was predicted to be ready in 5 years, the world would be radically different.

Secondly, this is very effective marketing, but in a subterfuge/propaganda sort of way. Everyone is talking about Amazon, its vision, its radical attempt to change the way things are delivered, etc. just in time for the holiday shopping season. What more could a brand want?

But what are we not talking about? Amazon's work conditions for and treatment of its seasonal workers (of which my aunt and uncle are two) and Amazon's business model being built upon a shell game of tax avoidance.

Amazon is waving some shiny new thing in your face that will never come to fruition so that you don't open your eyes to what they are really doing right now.

30 minutes my ass.

Hmm hate to be a cynic but I can't see this concept taking off much

You think all this buzz is just hot air?

Obviously this is just a publicity stunt. If it ever does happen it will be short lived and only available in one or two small zones in the U.S.