The US Patent and Trademark Office revealed an Amazon.com, Inc. patent filing, which highlighted the e-commerce giants’ plan to propel its unmanned delivery service for commercial purposes. According to the approved filing, drone deliveries will be navigated by pulling location data from a customers’ smartphone — where real-time routes and directions are constantly updated to guide the delivery process.
Amazon outlined features for its smart aircraft that boasts capabilities such as interactions between each other regarding traffic and weather conditions. A pilot delivery screen also features a number of delivery-options for the consumer, including “bring it to me”— the complete tool to deliver packages to your home, workplace or even vacation points, using a simple deployment routine that has your packages dropped on point.
While there is no reason to suggest the patent approval will entail similar schematics, a variety of technical obstacles can be averted by a quicker interaction with the regulatory board.
From a technical and performance standpoint, various precautions and caveats have been appropriately confronted. A plethora of sensors, radars, sonograms and infrared camera have been detailed in the patent to ensure a safe landing — trickling down to help safe navigation past oncoming humans or animals.
The drone maker will also employ a host of different unmanned aircraft with different shapes and weight for its production line. A month ago, car maker Audi announced a trial with DHL and Amazon that would allow a drone to deliver to the boot of its car . With the feature, an in-car communication device tracks a customer vehicle for some time before using a digital access code to unlock the boot. As soon as the code expires, the boot is completely shut.
The UAV may utilize this information to plan the route from the source location to the delivery location and/or to modify the actual navigation of the route. In addition, in some implementations, the UAV may consider other environmental factors while navigating a route.
For example, if the UAV’s route must cross over a road built for automobiles, the navigation of the route may be adjusted to minimize the intersection between the UAV’s path and the road. For example, the UAV may alter its navigation such that the path of the UAV will intersect with the automobile road at an approximately perpendicular angle.”
Additionally, the patent describes a system of tracking that would pull data from a user’s smartphone to determine the best place for an item to be delivered. It also includes a mock-up order page (above), showing how a user would choose a delivery option for delivery by drone within 30 minutes:
“In some implementations, the location of the user may be maintained and updated until the item is delivered to the user […] For example, the user may place an order for an item while at home, select to have the item delivered to their current location (delivery within 30 minutes of the order) and then leave to go to their friend’s house, which is three blocks away from their home.
As the ordered item is retrieved from inventory, the current location of the user’s mobile device may be determined and the delivery location correspondingly updated. As such, the ordered item will be delivered to the user while the user is at their friend’s house, or any other location.”
Sources: Bidness etc; Next Web
Hi all,
while this will be done in the next couple of years….. from point A to point B it will never happen at the above mentioned address. Well C maybe and then on the very top of the skyscraper.
Folks lets be clear about this the web van did not make in SF the Google express has it’s fair share of problems…. and now you want to deliver small packages with a drone in front of your house…. or work. Please be so kind and think, why do you need things in 15min or less?
Plan your day, manage you stock inventory. AH that business deal has to go through today as it is 31’s and I need my commission, so that I can pay for my super expensive 2nd house….
Well there is a real need for this kind of service here in the city of SF! but not for packages or sandwiches or beer…. Medical
Lets say from the UCSF Kirkland campus to the UCSF China basing by the ball park. Blood, organs…. there you can fly from roof top to roof top and no one is in the way. This would be a one way with service personal at each end. This make sense!
By the way drive through down town San Fransisco and see what really is going on there. Every pedestrian is either on there cell phone txt’ ing or listen to music and are not even aware that the are cars around them. They are not even seeing or noticing that there are crosswalks and that they have to stop at a red light.
Now you what to drop drones from the sky and deliver packages while at the bottom no one even pays attention what is happening on the street level 0 -2 meter from the ground.
I can see the law suits coming Amazons way, ” well judge I was listing to music while I was riding my bike running a red light and thanks to my skills I missed that old lady who had stopped to look into the sky….. and then that fu…ing drone fell right out of sky an hit me and cut off my right arm….. ”
Well son the the SF jury agreed that this should have never happen and awarded the guy on the bike 6 Mil as compensation!
We are not mentioning that he was listing to music, had just ran a red light and clearly did not pay attention.
Yeah let’s put one more thing into our smart phones how to get Prime Air packages quickly to ME ME ME ME and ME.
It is time to think beyond me, why do a need package that fast.
If Amazon keeps going the way they are going they might run out money before the FAA will approve this delivery system anyway…. Will Amazon then fight the FAA for holding them back because they could not deliver packages via a drone and that is way the lost there edge and went under?
While I love drones, I am fully aware of the risks and danger these can and will cause to humans, animals. So let us be clear about this stuff.
Happy droning,