“Always Home Cam” isn’t Amazon’s delivery drone but will deliver piece of mind… in 2021
Today at its new product event, Amazon debuted a new $249 drone that’s job is to patrol your home when you aren’t there. Will people invite Bezos Inc drones into their homes?
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Amazon appears to be building a flight simulator, according to a new patent, to ensure its delivery drones don’t crash while out on deliveries. The flight simulator is meant to help Amazon program its drones to better navigate dropping off parcels at customers’ houses.
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Amazon‘s latest drone patent points at a new way of using a drone that doesn’t involve delivering packages. Amazon wants to replace ski lifts. The drone uses a rope to pull people up the side of a mountain, just like Casey Neistat did in this video in December 2016.
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Ingenuity can be turned to many purposes. The same tech that builds drones can also make medical equipment. So is the lesson from Amazon Prime Air, which recently started mass-producing face shields for frontline COVID-19 medical workers.
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Ex-Boeing executive David Carbon will spearhead the Amazon Prime Air delivery by drone service. In 2013, Jeff Bezos famously announced that deliveries by drone would be a common sight in a matter of four to five years, and that hasn’t exactly panned out yet. But the online retailer is still focused on making parcel deliveries by drone a reality.
On Monday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) proposed new safety standards for specific drones for package deliveries in the Federal Register. The move is seen as a crucial step in allowing routine package deliveries by drones in the not too distant future.
In a new series by DroneDJ, we put the spotlight on commercial drone pilots to showcase how they use their unmanned aircraft in their day-to-day business operations. Today we feature Sparky’s Video Productions, whose owner Sparky Sorenson recently was allowed to record the Amazon Prime Air ribbon-cutting ceremony and the first departure. Be sure to watch the video as it has some really amazing drone footage.
Amazon is littered with cheap drones. Here’s a list of what we think are the best drones that are available on Amazon today. They include all-time favorites such as the DJI Mavic 2 Pro, DJI Mavic 2 Zoom, DJI Mavic Air, DJI Mavic Mini, Parrot Anafi, Autel Evo, and even the Ryze Tello. Check it out below, before or after you have had your Thanksgiving dinner.
This morning the Wall Street Journal has a detailed article about deliveries by drone. They take a closer look at Amazon, Wing Aviation and Uber Technologies. For some reason, UPS with their Matternet drones are not getting that same amount of attention in this article, even though they recently were awarded a Part 135 certification by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
When you think about Amazon
Drones have been flying for the last century, but delivery drones from Amazon have recently come to life. Amazon wants to deliver your packages by drone, lowering costs, and speeding up deliveries. Amazon continues to invest heavily in its delivery drone project, creating prototypes and testing deliveries in multiple locations.
Last day! E-commerce giant kicked off Amazon Prime Day with some of the best DJI deals on products such as the Mavic Air, Ryze Tello, Goggles RE, Ronin-S, Osmo Action, and Osmo Pocket camera. Some of the biggest savings are on the DJI Mavic Air ($120 off), an ultra pocketable 4K DJI drone, or the Ronin-S ($100 off). See below for all the details, pricing, and links to the DJI products.
There are about 175 hours left to take advantage of these and other deals on Amazon.
According to an article on Bloomberg, Amazon wants to hire more than 2,000 workers in the UK for its latest technology ventures. Amazon is reportedly looking to hire software developers, engineers, and data scientists, 170 of whom will be employed in development centers in London, Cambridge, and Edinburgh. They will be focused on developing technology for Alexa, Prime Air drone deliveries, and video service.
Amazon delivery drones might be used to spy on your home. An Amazon patent filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office on June 12, 2015, and granted June 4 of this year, indicates that the e-commerce giant is planning to use its network of drones to form a neighborhood watch system and keep an eye on your home. The company calls it “surveillance as a service” and it would have its delivery drones record footage of your home when they are out delivering packages.
As Walmart and Amazon are battling it out for supremacy in the fast-changing retail world, Walmart is on track to file more drone patents than Amazon for the second year in a row. According to research by the accounting firm BDO Walmart has filed 97 new drone applications with the World Intellectual Property Organization since July 2018. In the year before, Walmart applied for 57 patents compared to Amazon’s 54, according to an article in the Financial Times. More interestingly though, if you look at the 2017/18 time frame, DJI filed more drone patents that Walmart and Amazon combined.
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While we were listening to Sean Cassidy from Amazon Prime Air during a panel discussion on drone deliveries at the FAA UAS Symposium in Baltimore, the e-commerce giant introduced the new Amazon Prime Air drone in Las Vegas. The new drone features a very innovative design that can take off and land vertically but also fly horizontally. It can carry packages of up to 5 pounds in its fuselage and can fly a distance of up to 15 miles for up to 30 minutes. Amazon Prime Air said drone deliveries will start in the US in a matter of months.
Back in December 2013, Jeff Bezos famously announced on ’60 Minutes’ that deliveries by drone would be routine by 2018. And, even though that scenario hasn’t quite panned out a lot of progress has been made in the drone industry, including deliveries by drone. Just see what there are doing in North Carolina if you want any proof. Amazon, however, has been one of the most active companies to file for drone-related patents. One of which includes an “airborne fulfillment center” (AFC) such as an airship or blimp that would float around and from which drones would complete the last mile delivery. Well, a computer-generated video was circulated online that shows just what such a drone future according to Amazon might look like. It includes a massive Amazon blimp. Check this out.
Here’s a great piece in the Tech section of the NY Times [paywall], titled: “Skies aren’t clogged with drones, but don’t rule them out yet.” The article talks about deliveries by drone and the regulatory hurdles that still need to be overcome before we will see routine deliveries by drones. It talks specifically about Project Wing and the Hummingbird delivery drone from Google’s parent company Alphabet and also about Amazon’s Prime Air. See below for some of the highlights.
As you probably know, Amazon already has a fairly large number of drone delivery patents. However, earlier this month the e-commerce giant received their latest patent. This one is designed to guide drones to their destinations and to verify that the delivery by drone has been made at the correct address. Amazon filed for the patent back in 2016 and was awarded the patent “Drone Marker and Landing Zone Verification” on February 5th, 2019.
Like the U.S., Europe is moving to set the ground rules for commercial drone operations. Before drones can fly to make deliveries in crowded urban areas without crashing into each other, a standardized set of regulations is needed. Project Safir aims to help develop a set of ground rules for safe commercial drone operations in Europe.
The Denver Post had an interesting article yesterday. The newspaper wondered: “Where are the drones? Amazon’s customers are still waiting.” Five years ago, the CEO of the retail giant, Jeff Bezos predicted that drones would be delivering packages to customers’ doorsteps by now. As we all know that hasn’t quite happened yet. Even though delivery by drone is being tested extensively around the world, practical limitations, such as limited battery life, legal restrictions, like not being allowed to fly-beyond-line-of-sight without a waiver, as well as other hurdles, such as the need for Remote ID, large-scale implementation seems to be years away. In a recent NY Times article, I was quoted as saying it will be 2025 before “companies like Amazon will make routine drone deliveries to consumers.” What do you think? Let us know in the poll below.
Amazon has published an online gift guide for the holiday season and for the first time has also sent a paper toy catalog in the mail. We will take a look at the drones that made the list and some of the drones that didn’t. We also have the inside scoop on how products make it on the list. It turns out that it’s not actually top-reviewed products or editors picks that are selected for the Amazon gift guide. Surprise! There’s money involved.
Amazon is offering the Parrot Bebop 2 Drone FPV Bundle for $250 shipped. Also available at Best Buy. That’s $50+ off the typical rate and is in line with some of the best pricing we have tracked. This compact, lightweight drone offers 2- minute battery life and 1080p video recording. Along with the drone itself, a pair of FPV goggles and Parrot Skycontroller 2 are also included. Rated 4+ stars by 65% of reviewers.
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A couple of drones on Amazon have been catching my eye lately, the Holy Stone HS100 (about $250) and HS100G (about $280). It hasn’t been the specifications of these drones that have been grabbing my attention. Rather, it has been the stellar Amazon reviews (4.6 stars) and the number of Amazon reviews (over 1,300) that I have noticed. The question is, “can you trust these reviews?”
