The Washington Post has a story about how the success of the drone revolution - which is being spearheaded by companies such as Amazon, Google, FedEx and UPS looking to use drones for commercial delivery purposes - will depend not on technical issues, but on how “socio-technical" issues are addressed.
To put it simply, getting a drone to fly from here to there to drop off a package is not the problem. Rather, it will be things like how neighborhood dogs will react, or little kids, or how neighbors will feel about drones flying over their property. It isn't the "last mile" that will be the issue, but the last 50 feet.
"People are the problem," the story says. "And people present massive, often glossed-over stumbling blocks for delivery drones ever getting off the ground. While small drones already have been a retail hit — selling an estimated 700,000 units last year alone — some experts fear that people problems could delay the widespread adoption of more advanced, autonomous delivery drones by several years, dwarfing what many think of as the final obstacle for commercial drones: federal airspace regulations, which are expected later this year."
And, the Post writes, "Not only are people unprepared for drones, but the infrastructure needed to accommodate small flying delivery vehicles also is missing. Houses today have mail slots and curbside mailboxes to accommodate the traditional flow of mail and packages. Nothing yet exists to make the drone’s job easier."
“It captures the imagination because it feel like the future,” says Matthew Waite, who runs the Drone Journalism Lab at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. “But the future is a lot harder than they make it out to be.”
By the way ... the New York Times reports that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is saying that some 181,000 drone users "registered in the two and half weeks since the agency began requiring registration of the popular machines."
To put it simply, getting a drone to fly from here to there to drop off a package is not the problem. Rather, it will be things like how neighborhood dogs will react, or little kids, or how neighbors will feel about drones flying over their property. It isn't the "last mile" that will be the issue, but the last 50 feet.
"People are the problem," the story says. "And people present massive, often glossed-over stumbling blocks for delivery drones ever getting off the ground. While small drones already have been a retail hit — selling an estimated 700,000 units last year alone — some experts fear that people problems could delay the widespread adoption of more advanced, autonomous delivery drones by several years, dwarfing what many think of as the final obstacle for commercial drones: federal airspace regulations, which are expected later this year."
And, the Post writes, "Not only are people unprepared for drones, but the infrastructure needed to accommodate small flying delivery vehicles also is missing. Houses today have mail slots and curbside mailboxes to accommodate the traditional flow of mail and packages. Nothing yet exists to make the drone’s job easier."
“It captures the imagination because it feel like the future,” says Matthew Waite, who runs the Drone Journalism Lab at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. “But the future is a lot harder than they make it out to be.”
By the way ... the New York Times reports that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is saying that some 181,000 drone users "registered in the two and half weeks since the agency began requiring registration of the popular machines."
- KC's View:
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'm not as worried about Amazon and Google drones as I am about the clown next door who doesn't even know how to parallel park, and now he's out there flying drones around the neighborhood.
As for commercial drones, they won't be for every area, and I think that certainly for a near future, they will require consumers to agree to have them land in their front or back yard. There will be mishaps and accidents, but it is hard for me to imagine that this particular genie can be put back in the lamp.
