With increased demands of Amazon products, the company is imagining a technology that was once viewed as a fantasy to help deliver its supplies to the people’s door step. Amazon is considering using octocopters of card- table- size to deliver items at customers’ convenience. After delivery, the drone is expected to fly back to the station for the next order. Delivery by drones seems to have attracted series of debate, with many viewing it as an eye opener while a good number still think it is un-practicable. Amazon drone delivery can be a great idea when correctly implemented. It can facilitate delivery of items such as prepared food, reducing cost of delivering packages and mails through postal service, reducing delivery time, and distributing human relief to dangerous zones. Most importantly, the drone technology present a great business opportunity for the Amazon Company to act as a delivery agent for other companies. Amazon drone delivery gives us a glimpse into the future that is not only possible but also probable (Avampato para. 8).
It is ostensible that Amazon is currently expanding its business territory and is focusing on timely delivery to its new markets. The business takes about 3 hours to deliver its products to Los Angeles, therefore, faces very stiff competition from its counterparts such as the local grocery stores including Whole Foods (Market) and West Side Market. The local grocery stores also offer to deliver their products to their customers’ doorsteps and takes approximately two hours. Despite Amazon using temperature controlled tote bags for items that are perishable such as milk, most customers prefer fresh products that can only be assured by timely delivery. Therefore, there are higher chances that Drones idea could provide a solution to the problem of timely delivery and replace the huge delivery trucks by grocery delivery. That is, when the items are properly packed, there would be precise scheduling and quicker turnaround (Avampato para. 1).
One area where delivery drones can help is in timely delivery of prepared foods. This can be applied in the case of the city of New York, where a good number of people use readily prepared foods despite the fact that its delivery is rare and considered luxury (Avampato para. 2). Drones can also help in saving the United States government from the losses incurred year in year out by the Postal Service. It can ensure a streamlined delivery of packages, FedEx, and mails, especially at a time when the extra dollars could be used to support other sectors of economy (Avampato para. 3). Another sector that will benefit much from delivery drones is the emergency supplies. It can be used to supply food, water and medicine to victims of disasters such as Hurricanes, Typhoons, as well as drought and famine (Avampato para. 4). Besides, Drone technology may also be used in education sectors such as journalism students using it to explore extreme areas of environments and taking photographs in the outer space. Finally, yet importantly, drone technology comes with a business opportunity by Amazon providing delivery services to those companies who are unable to afford the cost of developing their own delivery drones (Avampato para.6).
Counter-argument
With all said and done, the idea of drone technology still faces quite a number of criticism. According to Brumley (par.1), “Amazon drones are a completely ridiculous and unworkable idea that will never get off the ground anytime in our life time.” The author goes ahead to add that it is hilarious seeing someone of Jeff Bezo’s type developing such kind of faith that scientific fictions are changing into facts (Brumley par. 1). Brumley (par. 1, 2, and 3) argues that “Amazon drones are un-workable due to challenges of: being exposed to airborne hazards, disasters resulting from flight failures, and inability to carry out complex tasks or adapt.” The coverage regions of Amazon drones are full of airborne hazards (Brumley par.3). Amazon drones are likely to cover small areas of about 10 miles away from the center of distribution. They are also expected to start their services within the metropolitan regions .Therefore, they would face the challenges of tall buildings, power lines, birds, cranes among other several things on their way. Disaster resulting from in-flight failure is another challenge of drone delivery (Brumley par 4).
Unlike airplanes, drones cannot be guided to safety during failures and hence can cause severe accidents and deaths when they abruptly land on populated areas. One death caused by Amazon drones would be viewed in a different angle from any other cause of death due to trio of safe, viable delivery-to-door services, which is readily available. Lastly, autonomous drones are incapable of doing complex jobs or adapting like human beings (Brumley par.5). People are better at doing very important as well as potentially dangerous duties than the computers. The knowledge that Amazon drones are likely not to be piloted brings in much worries than before. Unmanned and unpiloted drones making regular rounds over densely populated areas such as children playing grounds will cause a lot of fear to the parents. Other problems that are likely to be faced by Amazon drones are the possibility of people trying to knock them down to steal whatever they carry as well as the challenge of regulatory hurdles (Brumley par.5).
Conclusion
Concisely, by drawing both the merits and the demerits of the technology on scale, delivery drones is the way to go and should not be overlooked because of the few challenges discussed above. Instead, measures should be put in place to reduce the challenges and make the drone delivery a reality.
Works Cited
Avampato, Christa. "Delivery Drones Are a Good Idea." The Impact of the Tech Giants, edited by Jack Lasky, Greenhaven Press, 2016. Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, spcezproxy.alamo.edu/login?url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/ EJ3010990220/OVIC?u=txshracd2795"xid= b2d82a30. Accessed 30 Apr. 2017. Originally published as "How Amazon Prime Air's Drone Technology Could Affect Other Businesses," www.fool.com, 2 Dec. 2013.
Brumley, James. "Delivery Drones Are a Bad Idea." The Impact of the Tech Giants, edited by Jack Lasky, Greenhaven Press, 2016. Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, spcezproxy.alamo.edu/login?url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/ EJ3010990221/OVIC?u=txs hracd2795"xid=3609ed89. Accessed 30 Apr. 2017. Originally published as "Why Amazon Drones Absolutely Won't Work. Not Even a Little Bit," Investorplace.com, 3 Dec. 2013.
