The Drone Wars: Is Same-day Delivery Realistic?
In the past drones have been used mostly for military use in the United States, but with the cost of making them dropping in recent years it has commercial users more interested in utilizing the drones in their business. Minds have been racing with the possibilities ever since the CEO of Amazon announced the company plans to start deliveries by way of drone like “octocopters”. He has even stated that the deliveries would be completed within thirty minutes or less. Is this truly a possibility when it comes to the delivery of our packages? Is it possible to get merchandise we order on the same day?
What is Amazon Up To?
Amazon is currently using its warehouse management software to try to improve the drone’s ability and see how it will affect package delivery. Right now there are limits when it comes to this method of distribution that makes same day delivery seem less feasible, unless you live close to a distribution site.
The drones will be able to carry a weight of up to five pounds, which covers the majority of Amazon packages. Even with carrying limited weight, Amazon CEO has stated that the octocopters will have a ten mile radius from the distribution sites. This is not a huge range and the heavier the package is the more this distance is affected. Those of us that live near distribution centers in bigger cities may see the drones at work, but anyone in a rural area will not be as lucky. Battery life is not helping to guarantee same day deliveries. The size of the drones along with the packages will not allow a battery to keep this machine going for more than thirty minutes.
Will this battery powered machine operate in bad weather? At this point and time no, but with more research and technology they should be able to operate reliably in most normal weather conditions. The problems would begin when it comes to heavy precipitation like snow and sleet, or even heavy rain that could obscure the sensors entirely.
There is also a worry that people may try to shoot the drones down in an effort to steal the merchandise. To prevent this, the drones will need to fly at a higher altitude, which would decrease the time until the battery life drains and the distance that they can deliver.
The Federal Aviation Administration is currently not on board with this idea, standing behind their regulation that states the commercial operation of drones is illegal, with few exceptions. The agency has made a public promise to revisit the commercial application of small drones later this year, with potential of changing the current rules and regulations by the end of 2015.
Even if the rules and regulations are changed by 2015 and the use of drones is approved for package delivery, there’s still a lot of work to be done before we move away from traditional courier services Adelaide. Distance, weight, and battery life have to increase if there is hope of receiving a package anywhere in the country within the same day.
Drone deliveries aren’t as unprecedented as we might think
In late September, 2014 the German delivery service, Deutsche Post DHL was test running actual drone deliveries from Norden to Juist, and island town off the German coast in the southern North Sea. DHL has faced and is facing similar limitations to delivery capacity especially where harsh weather is concerned, but the company is convinced drones are a viable solution, at least to remote locations like islands, and are throttling up more testing.
Although the scope of DHL’s plans is nowhere near as broad as what Amazon is looking to accomplish, the German delivery service is not interested in sharing any of their findings.
