Amazon patent hints at floating warehouses in the sky

[octoberlib]

Amazon may one day use blimps stocked with drones to get packages to customers even faster.
The ecommerce giant was approved for a patent in April for airborne warehouses that use drones to make speedy deliveries. The patent was recently discovered by an analyst at CB Insights.

Amazon's patent contends that such a system would allow for deliveries to be made in minutes. The move could also reduce the resources needed to make a delivery.

The patent describes how Amazon (AMZN, Tech30) blimps would circle over cities at 45,000 feet and launch drones carrying orders. The drones would initially fall to earth relying largely on gravity, and their motors would fire up for the final stretch.

After completing a delivery, a nearby shuttle would fly them back to the blimp. That's because the drones, which can run for about 30 minutes, might not have enough power to fly back on their own.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/29/technology/amazon-aerial-warehouse/index.html?sr=twCNN122916amazon-aerial-warehouse1032PMVODtopPhoto&linkId=32868667

[LisaM]

1. Everything about this sounds wrong.

I don't want packages dropping out of the sky in any event, but for god's sake, are there going to be any jobs left for people to do? Are there going to be any retail districts left in cities and towns?

Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should do it. This sounds really, really awful.

[yeoman6987]

4. Sounds very jetsons sounding

I always wanted some of jetsons life like the invisable rain protection. Really neat. The flying cars are cool and the skyrails where you walk above buildings seems smart. Amazon is just ahead of the curve. Change is hard but once it happens everybody loves it. This is also very progressive which is fantastic.

[LisaM]

5. Uh huh, and what about jobs?

Not to mention, it sounds awful. I don't want things falling out of the sky. I just don't. I like to lie on my back and look up at the sky in the summer. I don't want it full of balloons and packages, even if I can't see them.

[Egnever]

8. Holding back progress because of jobs is not something I can sign on to.

Better to look for alternatives to the current model of how employment is compensated than to stop progress simply because it displaces jobs.

Unless you think we should continue to rape the planet because coal jobs would be lost. This is just another iteration of the same thing.

[HassleCat]

9. Wow! Just wow!

Questioning drones dispatched from blimps is the same as holding onto coal.

[LisaM]

10. LOL, I know.

Amazon is opening a grocery store here without clerks, too, and since cashiers are one of the largest groups of employees in the country, I think it's perfectly reasonable to question what those people will do to earn money. Not to mention that I enjoy the interaction of walking into a shop and talking to the people who work there, especially if they have a knowledge base about their product. I also like to look at things before I buy them. So yeah, I want stores to continue being.

And I worked in a store for nine years, including working at a cash register, and I really liked it.

[Egnever]

14. Heres a better idea

instead of holding on to jobs that can be done more efficiently by subsidizing them, how about we used the savings to provide free lifelong education so that people can train to do something else?

[LisaM]

16. Like what?

And what's wrong with jobs like cabinet making and other artisanal things that don't require a college education? What's wrong with being a plumber? What's wrong with organic farming? All of those things can be very, very fulfilling. Do you look down on jobs people do with their hands? Not really following you here.

Not to mention, princess phones lasted 20 years and buggy whips could be mended - this endless need to replace every technical thing every year is leading to mountains of hazardous waste.

[Johnathan146]

18. There is nothing wrong with any of those

And there are always going to be a need for all those jobs. I don't think everybody needs a college education, but its great to have a skill. Plumbers will be needed 100 years from now. Cashiers might not me. (or at least there will very likely be less in the future than there are now.)

Just today I went grocery shopping, picked up a scan gun. As I picked up every item, I scanned it, and put it in my bag. Then before I left, I scanned my credit card, and walked out the door. The technology is here today, and I'm not sure you can stop it.

[LisaM]

20. And you liked that?

Wouldn't you prefer to chat with a cashier ringing up your groceries? (I would - but our Safeway has some really nice cashiers). One day I couldn't find something I'd come in for, and they gave me a free cake to make up for it. Would a scan gun do that? Not to mention that by scanning the items yourself, you are de facto making more profits for whomever is at the top of that corporation, and that person is not going to sprinkle those profits back down into free education or anything else.

Now, I like human interaction and the best part of working in a bookstore was the people - the people I worked with (it's been years and almost all of them are still good friends) and the customers. I liked the inventory we had. I liked that I could move around on the job, and picking up boxes of books is a great way to stay in shape. It was rewarding.

When I go to the grocery, I avoid the self-checkout, because I want there to be more cashiers there. More people I can talk to, more people earning a decent living at a pretty enjoyable job.

I'm curious, and you don't have to answer if you don't want to, but do you dislike going out in public and talking to people?

[Johnathan146]

21. There was a line.

And every checkout line had a cashier.

Honestly, I really don't need to talk to a cashier. By the time I get that that point, I'm committed to checkout. If I need helping finding something I'll talk to an associate on the floor, or customer service, but I'm not going to hold up the line while they get a last minute item.

[bigtree]

38. +1000

...32-year grocery worker here

30 yrs. union

[LisaM]

49. Yay for you! It makes me sad that there are people who don't value that.

People on this forum, people who call themselves Democrats, you name it. I don't get it. I just don't.

[pipi_k]

41. Taking an opportunity here

to give my take on your questions to the previous person...

I don't like chatting with people. The less I have to deal with people the better I like it.

Amazon.com is the greatest. I can order and get my stuff (with Amazon Prime) in two days, or sometimes even sooner.

The most I have to interact with an actual human is when UPS shows up with my stuff. "Hi, how ya doing? Thanks. See ya!"


I don't have to stand in line waiting while someone in back of me is coughing up a lung or two, or has a snotty nosed kid whining and screaming because he missed a nap or has a diaper full of shit.


Cashiers aren't always friendly, either. Sullen, hating their jobs, barely making eye contact. Coughing or sneezing into the same hand they're going to use to hand me my bag and cash register receipt.

So honestly, I don't have anything against people who like the contact with cashiers and other customers.

But I can do without it, thanks.

[LisaM]

48. Every time I look at an Amazon box....

I think of those "pickers" trapped in overheated warehouses, running around trying to make unrealistic quotas. It makes me actually feel ill - no one needs stuff so fast that other people need their health endangered. Yet Amazon thinks that even those crappy jobs cut into its bottom line too much.

[Egnever]

19. Nothing wrong with them

unless you are keeping them when they are not needed.

There are plenty of way better jobs out there available to people with the right skill set. Getting people those skill sets should be much more important than hanging onto dying services.

If you had your way we would all still be riding horses because the horse breeders and stables would be put out of business. Or maybe we should never have come up with airplanes because the stagecoaches would all be put out of business. There are winners and losers with every new product and service holding back progress because of jobs is not a reason at all.

[pipi_k]

43. Yep...progress

isn't always a bad thing.

With the advent of the automobile, lots of horse breeders and stables, horse shoe makers, etc. gradually lost their relevance.

But that opened up a whole new field...people had to build cars. People had to know how to fix them. We needed roads and highways. Etc.

When one door closes, another one opens

[jmowreader]

35. So what happens when the "something else" disappears too?

Or worse, the "something else" you decided to retrain for is the same "something else" ten thousand other people picked, and there just plain aren't enough jobs in it to go around.

[KamaAina]

30. A British outfit "Fresh & Easy" tried that out here.

It went over like a lead balloon. Many of the stores sit empty, creating food deserts in places like SF's just-now-gentrifying Bayview district. Of course, CA's law prohibiting alcohol sales at self-checkouts may have had something to do with that.

[Egnever]

12. It's progress

People used to make buggy whips as well. Holding onto dying industries because people lose jobs is backwards thinking nonsense.

All those poor princes phone manufacturers...booohoo..

Nonsense.

[angstlessk]

15. At least buggy whip personnel were replaced with auto jobs

now people are being replaced with robots...not the same

[Egnever]

22. Says who?

where there really more jobs created when the whole horse industry was decimated by autos? Including stable hands and blacksmiths and all of the other support jobs that come with horsing besides buggy whip manufacturers? Are you so certain that this wont open a whole host of other support services?

The world is constantly evolving. Blocking progress because some folks will lose their job is ignoring all of the benefits of that evolution. People lose their jobs every day to new industry.

Will you also mourn all the insurance industry jobs lost if we go to single payer? You may not feel the benefit outweighs the loss of jobs in this particular case but where does it become ok to progress and where does it not in your mind and how do you get to determine what progress we get to have and what we don't?

[angstlessk]

26. It's not about jobs being displaced by robots et al...it's about

do we just let those folks replaced just die? How does the earth look when only multi billionaires fight simple billionaires?

[Egnever]

27. Of course not

As I said the focus should be on making education free for life for everyone so those people can train in other areas. It definitely should not be focused on stopping progress because people will lose jobs. That has been going on since the dawn of time.

The benefits from free education for all would far outweigh any loss of jobs to automation in my mind. We may disagree but that is how I see it.

[LisaM]

23. And, it's a little bit of a false comparison.

It was really the industrial age that forced out the cottage industries that was the big change.

[Egnever]

25. Just as it is the automation age that is forcing this

there is no difference.

[bigtree]

39. the industrial age was progress for workers

...the automation age offer no comparable advancement for workers.

All you've suggested here to mitigate that is a trickle-down fantasy that corps will invest the savings in workers or retraining for some non-existent industry. There's no real concern for displaced workers in that, just smoke and mirrors to move folks past the obvious harm to workers.

[HughBeaumont]

47. There IS a difference -

The people saying we will just plow through this with grit and determination are part of the problem, because they are insisting on an individual solution for a structural problem. Individuals who say that automation is exactly the same as industrialization are also incorrect and economically as well as politically illiterate. The problem with this position is twofold: First, automation is distinct from simple industrialization in that industrialization multiplied productive efforts but still demanded a large body of labor, automation has no such problem as the core phenomenon of automation is exactly the removal of this body of labor while simultaneously multiplying productive efforts. Secondly, even if we grant that humans will still have a large place in an automated economy the question of what to do with the wealth generated by these productive enterprises is entirely a political one. On average, life got much worse for most people after industrialization and it was only through organized resistance and violent action that gains were made to make the economy more livable for people. We have no such resistance today as the left has been broken and the post-left liberals have essentially signed on to the same economic theories as the right wing. That itself bodes ill of harnessing automation in a positive way and, at this point in time, suggests a greater likelihood that things will get more Darwinian and the elite will double down on the existing ideology that preserves their power.

I will also note to everyone saying it is "not that bad" because some jobs will exist: Look at how much we were hurting with 10% unemployment. Now imagine 20% permanent structural unemployment and, at best, a diminished welfare system marked by perennial lockdowns, controversies, instability, and an increasing amount of gatekeepers to ensure only the "worthy poor" are getting their pittance. Let us extend that further to 30 or 40% structural unemployment and combined harried temp work. It does not matter if some people can find work, obviously this is the case, but as a society we will be torn apart by an automation that is not being managed by political forces, rendering any individual solution simply a mix of desperation, blindness, and the same individuated greed that enables this phenomenon.

- BlindTiresias

[treestar]

40. somebody has to make the robots

and program them.

I think robots are good for dangerous jobs. Not risking the human life.

[pipi_k]

44. Back

20+ years ago I worked for a small company that sold industrial machinery to various manufacturing businesses.

But that doesn't mean millions of people lost jobs that couldn't be replaced.

Just the small company I worked for was very busy what with our service guys having to go out and fix the machines when they broke down. I was busy in the office entering data, working on price and feature quotes for customers...ordering small replaceable parts like lightbulbs, belts and hoses, etc.

The bookkeeper was busy as well.

Even the "robotic" machines needed a human at some point.


And there are still jobs that robots can't do yet and probably never will

[HughBeaumont]

46. Taking labor out of the equation completely in the name of progress is suicidal.

"look for alternatives to the current model of how employment is compensated" . . . . yeah, I'll bet THAT'S something The Teabagger Billionaire Three Branches Club will get right on to solvin'.

[PoliticAverse]

2. A dark object... plummeting to the earth...

[angstlessk]

3. Except for my wine ....I could care less if is delivered today or

next week!

[LisaM]

6. I know; this instant gratification crap.

What is the matter with people? Can't they wait for anything?

[angstlessk]

13. I remember with the microwave...

we thought 'seconds' was a long time!

[lpbk2713]

7. Amazon's mother ship.

[fescuerescue]

11. Seems like the real problem to be solved with this

Is not delivering items, but rather stocking the mothership.

That's can't be a nimble operation.

[TeamPooka]

29. I guess they would have to land on a regular basis for restocking/refueling

[fescuerescue]

32. yea I agree

But all that effort & energy expended in launching, recovering.

Hard to believe it would be Net Positive over UPS trucks.

[pipi_k]

45. In some areas it would be

a positive over UPS trucks, like where I live.

I'm at least 20 miles in all directions from any medium to large sized city.

In the virtual middle of nowhere. I often feel sorry for the UPS guy who has to come out here.

And this time of year it's even worse, as I live on a dead end dirt road almost at the bottom of a scary hill. They don't give the guy a suitable truck for winter. Just "Big Brown" with two-wheel drive.

One winter a UPS truck skidded at the bottom and ended up stuck across the whole road just around suppertime, which meant that people beyond that point had to leave their vehicles parked along the side of the road and walk through the open UPS truck to get home.

So yeah...out here in the sticks it would be a positive thing for a blimp to hover over the large field at the top of the hill and send a drone down here into the pits of rural snow-hell.

[TheBlackAdder]

17. Nope. Nothing can go wrong here. Does that mean their Chinese & bootleg goods are delivered faster?

[Johnathan146]

24. I'm guessing the patent will expire decades before this is feasable

I'm guessing this patent is more about marketing, and getting amazon in the news than anything else. (relative to a company the size of amazon), patents are not that expensive to get. If it gets them on the news and in newspapers, its cheap PR.

[Oneironaut]

28. Did they get the Lutece twins to come into this realm through a tear?

[Dave Starsky]

37. And pretty soon, we'll have these!

Although, they'll probably look like Trump.

[Warpy]

31. Bezos needs to get off the west coast

and visit flyover country some time. An overinvestment in flying warehouses and drones won't do a thing for most of us. It'll just block the sunshine for a lot of angry people on the ground.

[tenaciousdem]

33. Somebody needs to put the pipe down.

[Warren DeMontague]

34. Soon we will be able to carpet bomb people with actual carpets

..fuck, i dont care. It sounds cool.

[Dave Starsky]

36. We're getting closer to Columbia every day.

Booker, catch!

[Tommy_Carcetti]

42. One question: Why?

I know the answer is supposed to be "It sounds so cool and I bet it will be cost effective!" But honestly none of this futuristic stuff proposed by Amazon sounds all that practical. But then again I've never found Amazon all that practical unless I'm looking for something that can't be found easily in a regular store.