The idea of using drones for delivery is not new. The giant Amazon, which announced plans to deliver toothpaste and cat food to American homes within 4-5 years, is only going to start tests in one of the cities of California after 9 years.
It requires new regulations of using airspace and not only. Imagine yourself having fun at Fire Joker, and suddenly you get a message on your phone that your goods have arrived; please take them from your balcony. Sounds interesting.
Most likely, drone delivery will be of limited value, only for certain locations and products. It will be a solution for specific tasks, such as transporting medicines for residents of remote areas. But that doesn’t sound as ambitious as the big tech companies’ promises.
First Problems
Aircraft without human control in the air is already not news today. Airbus managed to take off and land without any pilot’s help. Drones are a little bit different. They are controlled by traffic control stations but is it so easy to deliver something to your house? Yes, it will be.
In large cities, there are lots of problems in the sky, and we are not talking about birds. Birds also can cause trouble, but for the drone that can analyze the world around him, it wouldn’t be a problem.
You probably noticed that sometimes when you’re using your GPS system in the car, entering a large city, your GPS starts working weirdly, if it keeps working at all.
The same will be with the drones. Moreover, some cities have a subway over the houses and tons of different wires. Solving the problem with GPS can be done for sure but then comes another problem.
Airspace
Majorly, all drones will be used in uncontrolled airspace. Uncontrolled airspace is airspace where traffic control services can be provided according to practical issues.
Also, the radar might not be able to check all the flying objects, which can cause a problem for the airports as several airports are located inside huge cities.
Imagine how many problems a bird can cause to an aircraft. Now imagine that there are drones in the sky that the air traffic controller doesn’t see, and they don’t react to anything like sound that is used to scare the birds.
Results
Not all experts are so critical. But in the past, similar optimism has not materialized in other areas.It’s hard not to draw parallels between unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned vehicles.
Experts noted that, as in the case of autonomous transport, the complexity of the task is underestimated, and the potential of the technology is exaggerated.