K
Kathleen Martin
Guest
It was not so long ago that package delivery drones, specifically ones from Amazon AMZN -2.1%.com, seemed poised to take flight as soon as the right regulatory bodies signed off. At present, however, the concept of package drop-off via drone is looking like it could be a dud.
Amazon’s drone program is nowhere near taking off despite nearly a decade in development. The company has made a $2 billion investment and has a global team of 1,000 people worldwide working on the project, according to a Yahoo Finance report on a Bloomberg investigation.
For some of the experts on the RetailWire BrainTrust commenting in an online discussion last week, the failed ambitions of the drone program were a foregone conclusion.
“I don’t know who is surprised or why they are surprised that it’s not ‘taking off,’ wrote Paula Rosenblum, co-founder of RSR Research. “In Colorado, you can buy a licen
se to shoot them down. They’re risky on a good day with anything heavier than a feather. They eliminate jobs for no good reason. What could possibly go wrong?”
“Drone delivery is great in concept, but a nightmare in reality,” wrote Steve Montgomery, president of B2B Solutions. “Imagine the air around your town or city full of drones from different companies rushing to make deliveries. Add in birds, a few people flying drones for recreation and what you have is a recipe for trouble.”
Speaking on Bloomberg TV, journalist Spencer Soper described problems with the Amazon drone design. In a test last summer, an Amazon drone experienced a motor failure while in flight and plummeted to the ground despite anti-crash safety features and caused a 25-acre brush fire with the explosion of its lithium battery.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/retailwire/2022/04/19/crash-raises-doubts-for-amazons-2-billion-drone-program/?sh=541a5c3e37c6
Amazon’s drone program is nowhere near taking off despite nearly a decade in development. The company has made a $2 billion investment and has a global team of 1,000 people worldwide working on the project, according to a Yahoo Finance report on a Bloomberg investigation.
For some of the experts on the RetailWire BrainTrust commenting in an online discussion last week, the failed ambitions of the drone program were a foregone conclusion.
“I don’t know who is surprised or why they are surprised that it’s not ‘taking off,’ wrote Paula Rosenblum, co-founder of RSR Research. “In Colorado, you can buy a licen
se to shoot them down. They’re risky on a good day with anything heavier than a feather. They eliminate jobs for no good reason. What could possibly go wrong?”
“Drone delivery is great in concept, but a nightmare in reality,” wrote Steve Montgomery, president of B2B Solutions. “Imagine the air around your town or city full of drones from different companies rushing to make deliveries. Add in birds, a few people flying drones for recreation and what you have is a recipe for trouble.”
Speaking on Bloomberg TV, journalist Spencer Soper described problems with the Amazon drone design. In a test last summer, an Amazon drone experienced a motor failure while in flight and plummeted to the ground despite anti-crash safety features and caused a 25-acre brush fire with the explosion of its lithium battery.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/retailwire/2022/04/19/crash-raises-doubts-for-amazons-2-billion-drone-program/?sh=541a5c3e37c6
