Duke University researcher: People aren’t ready for delivery drones

Amazon has recently uncovered a new innovative delivery strategy that incorporates the use of drones in their delivery process. Accompanying this revolutionary technology though is a large number of skeptics who denounce the idea of automated aerial delivery systems. This skeptical view is encompassed in the article “Duke University researcher: People aren’t ready for delivery drones” This article presents some problems that drones may encounter during flight, particularly people conflicting with the drones. 

The first problem the article offers is it believes many people will try to shoot down the flying drones mid flight or attempt to throw objects in its line of flight. However the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has stated that drones must fly around 500 feet and no faster than 100 miles per hour, which is far too high and fast for a regular civilian to make contact with it in mid flight. Furthermore a drone of that altitude is almost unnoticeable to the human eye and not loud enough to be heard (in my personal experience as a drone owner). The only moments in flight that could possibly pose human danger to the drone is when it is landing. Although even in this circumstance it is highly unlikely to be tampered with by human interference because it will be landing in the customer's yard, being the customer has no incentive to destroy the machine that just delivered his desired package. 

Another area of concern within this article is how drones will be able to deliver packages to residences in urban locations, particularly apartments. While there is no definite solution at this moment to this problem Paul Misener, Amazon’s vice president for global public policy says they are aware of the problem and are working out all the kinks. One solution to this endeavor is to assign a location at the top of the apartment building to designate a landing spot for the drone to safely land.

Ultimately a majority of the people who criticize the idea of commercial drones being utilized in the near future are taking trivial problems and blowing them out of proportion. Although there are kinks that need to be worked out, all of the technology there and is ready to be utilized. The largest obstacles that commercial drones are facing are people misunderstand it’s capabilities and the FAA trying to keep up with the ever-changing technology.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/science-technology/article58189618.html