Amazon Blasts FAA For Slowness On Drone Regulation

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Considering how long it takes the government to do anything, I think six months is rather speedy. :D

Less than a week after the Federal Aviation Administration gave Amazon.com the green light to test a delivery drone outdoors, the company told U.S. lawmakers that the prototype had already become obsolete while the company waited more than six months for the agency's permission.
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They are absolutely right, as the FAA was and has been far too gdamn reactionary.

They are the embodiment of Hermes the bureaucrat from Futurama that sees a problem coming but won't do anything about it until its too late: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tamkTRNng3Y

Proper management of this issue would have been to evaluate trends, see the technology development at least five years ago, and then evaluate the implications and obvious business applications of the tech and make adjustments and rulings accordingly. That's PROACTIVE management, and is what any reasonable business does... unfortunately, our government isn't run like a reasonable business.
 
I work in Aviation. I won't defend the speediness of the FAA, but I will say the FAA has been working the drone issue for years, mostly in regards to military drones.

While privately owned drones are here, and are definitely affordable...they **could** present a hazard to the general public if not controlled.

Oh, and BTW.....6 mos is a land speed record for the FAA.
 
They got action in only 6 months :eek:

Damn, that's warp 9 speed for the FAA. They are notorious for being glacially slow.
 
Scythe said:
I work in Aviation. I won't defend the speediness of the FAA, but I will say the FAA has been working the drone issue for years, mostly in regards to military drones.

While privately owned drones are here, and are definitely affordable...they **could** present a hazard to the general public if not controlled.

Oh, and BTW.....6 mos is a land speed record for the FAA.
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You know if the FAA rubber stamped it and there was an accident, everyone would raise hell and point out the failure of government. In the grand scheme of things, I'd rather they get it right than get it fast. Personally, I'll take no sales tax and slower shipping. If I really need it right this second, there are local stores all around where I can buy things. Then again, when I saw 60 minutes, my first thought was, "Hmm that package would be easy to steal.
 
nilepez said:
You know if the FAA rubber stamped it and there was an accident, everyone would raise hell and point out the failure of government. In the grand scheme of things, I'd rather they get it right than get it fast. Personally, I'll take no sales tax and slower shipping. If I really need it right this second, there are local stores all around where I can buy things. Then again, when I saw 60 minutes, my first thought was, "Hmm that package would be easy to steal.
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I don't think everyone would, as people recognize that 1.3 million people die in car accidents each year, and approximately 50 million are injured or disabled.

The alternative to a drone is an automobile, and there is no question that they are large dangerous objects that are literally THE NUMBER ONE leading cause of death for ages 1-44 in the United States. Look it up, you are more likely to die in a vehicle related accident than any other cause for the majority of your lifespan.

The more of these lightweight drones there are delivering pizzas and netflix DVDs and RAM sticks from Amazon and the like, the less of these very dangerous 3000 pound missiles at ground level, sharing the roads with children on bicycles, are out there killing people. So the danger can be represented not only as low, but as negative, in reducing the overall danger that Americans are subject to.

That is an argument that is not difficult to make, and something that should have been studied with supporting evidence published years and years ago.

The more the United States lags on this, the more US businesses are going to miss opportunities to revolutionize transportation that they could use to setup businesses as leaders across the globe. Considering how little the US still has a competitive advantage on in this global marketplace, that is a huge deal, and it can and will result in lost capital and that lost capital results in reduced quality of life for Americans. Its a big deal.
 
Ducman69 said:
I don't think everyone would, as people recognize that 1.3 million people die in car accidents each year, and approximately 50 million are injured or disabled.

The alternative to a drone is an automobile, and there is no question that they are large dangerous objects that are literally THE NUMBER ONE leading cause of death for ages 1-44 in the United States. Look it up, you are more likely to die in a vehicle related accident than any other cause for the majority of your lifespan.

The more of these lightweight drones there are delivering pizzas and netflix DVDs and RAM sticks from Amazon and the like, the less of these very dangerous 3000 pound missiles at ground level, sharing the roads with children on bicycles, are out there killing people. So the danger can be represented not only as low, but as negative, in reducing the overall danger that Americans are subject to.

That is an argument that is not difficult to make, and something that should have been studied with supporting evidence published years and years ago.

The more the United States lags on this, the more US businesses are going to miss opportunities to revolutionize transportation that they could use to setup businesses as leaders across the globe. Considering how little the US still has a competitive advantage on in this global marketplace, that is a huge deal, and it can and will result in lost capital and that lost capital results in reduced quality of life for Americans. Its a big deal.
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It's 6 months. That's not an unreasonable amount of time and based on what Amazon said on 60 minutes, it's not as if this is going to pull a ton of trucks off the road. It's only going to speed up delivery in some cities (and siphon money out of small business pockets and into Amazon's). Furthermore, it doesn't appear it affected Amazon's testing much, if at all. Outside of major markets, everything else will still come via UPS, USPS and FedEx trucks.
 
Amazon must be ticked that they're losing time against the competition here. I imagine they have armies of drones ready to fly...
 
a. 6mo is not a long time
b. they should of submitted it 12 months ago so the "Drone wouldnt of been out of date/expired"
c. if the drone model is no longer valid and is out of date, THIS IS PROBABLY A GOOD THING.

Nobody wants an out of date, buggy death trap flying around their neighborhood.
 
Comixbooks said:
What happens to a person if they keep the Drone and their Package?
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Rusty spoon rape. But seriously, as far as I know the drone doesn't land, it just drops the package off via a string, similar to how helicopters release troops in hot zones.

So it would be challenging to capture the drone, and even then what are you going to do with it? Amazon would surely have a cellular connection on it, so they can see exactly who molested it, where it was engaged, and be able to track it remotely. So it'd be one of the worst things to steal IMO.

Much more lucrative would be to hold up a UPS truck, which has been done before. Driver gets out with the engine running and some hoodrat jumps in the driver's seat, drives it down the block, and him and his friends unload the whole truck and abandon the vehicle. Or people that follow UPS trucks around and pick up all the packages the UPS driver leaves at doors, which I've read about happening a lot during the holiday season. Individual drones, carrying much lower payload and being hard to intercept and flying high should actually reduce losses.

Plus, if a drone crashes it'd be cheaper to repair/replace than a UPS truck involved in an accident on the highway, where not only do you have to worry about the truck but paying the insurance for the risk to the driver's welfare as well.
 
I know UPS drivers are overworked I feel bad if I order stuff online though them now.
 
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