[sly010]

Or imagine delivery of low-value goods to close locations. At the moment it takes 30-60 minutes for a restaurant from 3 block away to deliver my lunch and it includes a bicycle, a delivery guy, an elevator guy and a couple of doors and/or doorbells. It costs a few dollars in tip.

A drone can bypass all of that inefficiency and show up in my window 60 seconds after the meal is cooked. In New York it could deliver to the fire escape or to a special landing pads, or just hover in front of the 3rd window on the left on the 5th floor for 30 seconds.

What happens to the illegal delivery guy living on the tip is an entirely different question.

[TeMPOraL]

That's the one case I can't imagine working any time soon - drones in the cities. To-door delivery is a fine dream when you live in a suburb and have your own garden, but in a city? What they're going to do with that pizza? Throw it through the window (if they even knew the right one)? Land on a roof and risk someone else snatching the cargo?

Not saying it's impossible, but I see tons of additional concerns, both practical and related to safety.

[sly010]

Snatching would probably not be an issue. (Delivery guy would also give the "cargo" to anyone who claims he ordered it). They also don't have to throw it though the window. You know to the second when the drone arrives and it can just hover until you open the window and take it. And it's your window, not someone elses. After 2 minutes, your lunch goes back and you got a bad point on your profile. You would need to order to the right window and stuff, but you can build a window map of the city with drones. I think the hard part is regulation and licensing the airspace, not the technology.

[TeMPOraL]

I think flying within centimeter distance of a building could present some additional technical and safety challenge (wind, avoiding people getting their fingers sawed off by rotor blades), but the legal hurdles will the biggest problem, I think.

There is little safe space to fly over in cities - you can't just start flying over roads and pavements, because if any malfunction happens, you'll be dropping a 10kg high-velocity brick at people and cars. You'll need at least specialized insurance for that, and I'm not sure if anyone gives this kind of thing.

[JoeAltmaier]

Cities have plenty of safe places to fly (over streets for instance; or over roofs) but the final contact issue is real. How about: don't come down until signaled by a smartphone, then home in on the gps location.

[TeMPOraL]

Over streets is one of the least safe place to fly - imagine a 10km brick falling at 40km/h into incoming traffic or a group of pedestrians. As for the final contact, your average quadcopter will have like 10-20 minutes of flight time tops; it can't just wait for you to signal it - being even a minute late could mean the drone won't make it back to a charging station.

[JoeAltmaier]

Very true today. Batteries will get better, or maybe metal-air with huge capacity. OR, it could deploy a balloon and wait for the signal :)

[puranjay]

And drones will have cameras. Stealing from a drone would then be like trying to break open an ATM.

All these arguments against drones have very easy technological answers.

[sly010]

On the stealing the drone issue: I don't think cooperation is an issue here. It's like worrying about someone beating an Uber driver and taking his car.

[TeMPOraL]

Beating a driver is much different than stealing a machine. Assaulting a person uleashes a whole new set of laws on your arse. Think instead of bike thefts - too cheap for society to care about, so they keep getting stolen all the time.

[mnem]

Why would the delivery guy be illegal? Would humans have to be banned for drones to get used?

[phaemon]

Americans refer to people who live in the USA without government permission as "illegals". These people often take low paid work, such as pizza delivery.

[Igglyboo]

He means illegal alien.

[RodericDay]

Yeah can't wait to be walking around the city with drones flying around delivering pizza and Family Guy box-sets

This future seems positively utopian