I think this has potential to turn into something awesome. What do you think?
Thursday, December 25, 2014
Drones: The Next Big Thing?
As today is Christmas, being from a Jewish family, I am very bored. Reading an article I found online, a 'Social Media Holiday Wishlist' courtesy of the analytics firm Prime Visibility, I discovered something interesting. Through social media monitoring, the company determined that the #4 most wanted gift this holiday season was a drone. This is a huge upgrade from last years' #4 (Justin Bieber tickets). Drones have stirred up quite a bit of controversy as of late. As with all new technologies, there is an uncertainty as to how they should be regulated. An average American now has the ability to go out and purchase a small aircraft for a relatively low price. This is quite troubling for the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration). The FAA has already come out and said that they likely will not have regulations for unmanned aircraft until the year 2017. As of right now, the commercial use of these drones is banned until the FAA makes up their mind. Amazon has been researching the possible implementation of drones as a way of an unmanned delivery service. They have been forced to research and develop out-of-country and I personally think this is a huge missed opporotunity. Transportation costs on online goods would plumit. Gas would be saved. Time would be saved. Most importantly to Amazon and consumers, money would be saved. The video below is a quick demonstration on how said process would work.
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Adam, you cover a wide range of topics this term, but the total number of posts is quite low. Think of the range you might have covered!
ReplyDeleteA real strength here is your voice. Opening lines are very funny. Then the post sort of gushes about technology -- uncritically. Sort of reads like "Wouldn't it be neat to go to high school on Neptune!" Don't take Amazon's slick promo video at face value without considering costs of such an operation. What of the loss of jobs? Will there be drones of different sizes for, say, refriegerators or grand pianos? What of the dangers of malfunctions -- crashes, fires, interference with other airborne items? Why does the family in the video wait inside until the package arrives? What if the dog attacks the bot? (I can hear Jeff Bezos now: "Amazon is working on a robohound"). Couldn't the device be used for deadly purposes -- pipe bombs or Bieber tickets?