Prime Air

[strife]

No thats smart imo, just the vague opinions you two made are ignorant concerning debt in general.

[Jakensama]

The 15 grand of credit card debt I racked up in my late teens/ very early 20s was a wise investment too.

[Slamz]

I'm sure "losers" was a fast and lose description but for sure, credit card debt has to be the worst way to pay for anything. My purchase APR on my card right now is 13%. You can potentially get lower than that with a signature loan, which requires no collateral and is basically just a cash advance (spot check some random credit union: signature loan 9% APR...probably for members only).

It beats "starvation" or "death in the streets" but it's still a terrible way to pay for things if there was any other choice.

[TinStar]

I'm sure "losers" was a fast and lose description but for sure, credit card debt has to be the worst way to pay for anything. My purchase APR on my card right now is 13%. You can potentially get lower than that with a signature loan, which requires no collateral and is basically just a cash advance (spot check some random credit union: signature loan 9% APR...probably for members only).

It beats "starvation" or "death in the streets" but it's still a terrible way to pay for things if there was any other choice.

Hey. It's not the political forum, I wasn't looking for a fight. It was tongue and cheek..

[Jakensama]

I think the best type of debt are the payday loans they advertise on TV that show they have 3000%+ APR in the very small print.

[Slamz]

Yeah, when I checked signature loan rates the top link ended up being for "35% - 420%", which I found by clicking a really teeny tiny blue link labeled "See Rates & Fees".

In that case you'd be better off with a credit card...

[Vanraw]

The interview I saw said that a large percentage of Amazons shipments are under 5lbs and can be carried.

Yea, we move the bulk of the Amazon goods. The problem is you lose your shirt if you don't take in bulk the goods to a central point at delivery.

For example we tested the following:

You can take something like this to a hub then distribute everything out of the hub to try and eliminate delivery drivers and trucks. The problem is you need about 100,000 of them for a small city like Buffalo or Tucson.

The logistics alone is stupid and then you can't solve the pick up problem. They have to be able to pick up and process goods not just deliver them.

We tried driving the units to a central point but again the pick-ups aren't addressed and you waste weight by carrying the units rather than freight.

In a nutshell these are a more fancy way of losing money.

That make sense. I didn't think about the scale. So this is a great free ad / marketing scheme for amazon, because every news outlet around carried it for free. Brilliant.

[Vllad]

So this is a great free ad / marketing scheme for amazon, because every news outlet around carried it for free. Brilliant.

Yea pretty much. This is like the 60's personal jet pack. While the technology is there, their is no real application for it other than a neat factor for marketing.

[Moristans]

So this is a great free ad / marketing scheme for amazon, because every news outlet around carried it for free. Brilliant.

Yea pretty much. This is like the 60's personal jet pack. While the technology is there, their is no real application for it other than a neat factor for marketing.

Yup.

It would be like GM demonstrating a flying car for mass consumption.

[strife]

So this is a great free ad / marketing scheme for amazon, because every news outlet around carried it for free. Brilliant.

Yea pretty much. This is like the 60's personal jet pack. While the technology is there, their is no real application for it other than a neat factor for marketing.

Yup.

It would be like GM demonstrating a flying car for mass consumption.

what will come first... the flying car for mass consumption or magic drones that deliver all your mail? I'm not really sure... Both seem unlikely anytime soon. At least flying cars have a human driver; having humans drive the drones would fix a lot of its issues but isn't feasible on the scale required to make it useful.

[Moristans]

Yup.

It would be like GM demonstrating a flying car for mass consumption.

what will come first... the flying car for mass consumption or magic drones that deliver all your mail? I'm not really sure... Both seem unlikely anytime soon. At least flying cars have a human driver; having humans drive the drones would fix a lot of its issues but isn't feasible on the scale required to make it useful.

True, but in that case, we might as well just add Z- axis control to a UPS truck them.

I'd say adding humans to the mix is 6 of one, half dozen of the other.

Let's just remove Z axis control and talk about self-driving Google cars which, hypothetically speaking, allow faster and more trouble free transportation. There's just something about consciously giving complete control of your life over to a machine, even though we do it all the time without knowing it, as if adding a steering wheel and brake pedal under human control is really a better option.

Personally, living in Southern California and having to commute to work everyday, I don't see how adding a Z axis under human control to the mix is going to make things better. I'd rather see drones delivering my Amazon orders.

[Slamz]

At least flying cars have a human driver; having humans drive the drones would fix a lot of its issues but isn't feasible on the scale required to make it useful.

I actually think taking humans out of the equation will ultimately solve more problems.

There are some interesting drone videos out there of how modern drones can react to damage, doing things (like spinning rapidly) to compensate for the loss of a blade that a human either couldn't do or would get killed trying to do (from the G-forces). Plus you've got computer reaction time vs human reaction time.

While computers (and software) can screw up, I'd bet a total conversion of all human-driver traffic to robot-driver traffic would not only make traffic a great deal more efficient (getting you where you're going faster) but would also reduce traffic accidents by like 99%.

Getting the robots to that level of intelligence is the hard part. But robot pilots are probably a lot easier than robot drivers if only because the rules of the air are a lot more straight-forward than the rules of the ground.

[Moristans]

I actually think taking humans out of the equation will ultimately solve more problems.

Skynet would agree, and made that decision in a nanosecond.

[TinStar]

So in a case like Prime Air. What if they made it like a subscription thing (like Amazon Prime already is) where you set up an account and were required to have some sort of "platform" where the air package was delivered in which the drone was able to locate that platform(could even do it for apartments and condos where it is like a community mail box) and drop off the packages there. I would think something like that would be much more feasible than randomly dropping a package from a drone in a random spot at someone's house.

[strife]

Well I'm Pretty sure if a human were driving my roomba(which is freaking awesome btw) it wouldn't keep locking itself in the bathroom... When we get home everyday (or at least quite often) we get to play the where is my roomba game.

[Moristans]

So in a case like Prime Air. What if they made it like a subscription thing (like Amazon Prime already is) where you set up an account and were required to have some sort of "platform" where the air package was delivered in which the drone was able to locate that platform(could even do it for apartments and condos where it is like a community mail box) and drop off the packages there. I would think something like that would be much more feasible than randomly dropping a package from a drone in a random spot at someone's house.

Yeah, probably more feasible, but I'd imagine that Amazon would still have to deal with FAA, local ordinances, etc.

It really is a lot like Google cars. The technology exists, has gone through extensive testing, and has proven to be extremely safe, especially compared to the average human driver in the same circumstances. Still, even if you can get past the $150,000 price tag for the hardware and software to run a car with no driver, only three states even have laws on the books now allowing driverless cars on public roads.

[Moristans]

Well I'm Pretty sure if a human were driving my roomba(which is freaking awesome btw) it wouldn't keep locking itself in the bathroom... When we get home everyday (or at least quite often) we get to play the where is my roomba game.

Yeah, but I also imagine that the margin of error for a Roomba running around in an apartment is a lot bigger than for a driverless car on a public road or a pilotless drone dropping off a package. That's probably why a driverless Prius costs an extra $150K but a driverless Roomba doesn't.

[strife]

Well I'm Pretty sure if a human were driving my roomba(which is freaking awesome btw) it wouldn't keep locking itself in the bathroom... When we get home everyday (or at least quite often) we get to play the where is my roomba game.

Yeah, but I also imagine that the margin of error for a Roomba running around in an apartment is a lot bigger than for a driverless car on a public road or a pilotless drone dropping off a package. That's probably why a driverless Prius costs an extra $150K but a driverless Roomba doesn't.

ya but you're not going to spend100k on a delivery bot which is some of the issues having a human driver alleviate. You can buy a driverless prius for 150k or one that required a human for 15k.. and the human driven Prius could go pick up a gallon of milk from the store or check your kid out of school... although being that only tree hugging hippies drive a prius, they would probably bring home coconut milkand dress your kid in skinny jeans

[Slamz]

Yeah that's why I think driverless air is a lot easier than driverless ground (or intelligent driverless vacuum).

Dealing with air is conceptually easy enough. Don't fly into things. Stay in the 1000 foot altitude lane. Land in areas that are flat and clear. If a meatbag gets within 20 feet, fly straight up.

Cars are a lot harder because there are a ton more rules and variations on obstacles and if you do it wrong you've just smashed a 4000 pound vehicle into someone's car, living room or kneecap. Or maybe just gotten stuck because there's no lines and the computer doesn't know what to do. (i.e., I bet interstate driving is super easy but that last 200 feet of figuring out how to pull into a parking lot and find a space to park in is at least a thousand times more complex.)


So Roombas can be pretty dumb and get away with it because "Rules of Vacuuming" can be made really basic and still work.

I think air is much the same thing. It doesn't need a lot of complexity. Collision detection from a safe distance is going to be the bulk of it.

Cars are probably the hardest thing to automate.

[strife]

I dunno... Landing a drone on a front porch would be kind of hard.. its not like you can Just drop the package on the front lawn. And not everyone's house is as open as the one in the video... What happens if you live in an apartment?

[Grieve]

although being that only tree hugging hippies drive a prius, they would probably bring home coconut milkand dress your kid in skinny jeans

Hey! Although I don't have my Prius anymore, I resent that comment! Coconut milk is highly nutritional, very tasty, and doesn't involve the subjugation and inhumane treatment of our bovine friends!

[strife]

although being that only tree hugging hippies drive a prius, they would probably bring home coconut milkand dress your kid in skinny jeans

Hey! Although I don't have my Prius anymore, I resent that comment! Coconut milk is highly nutritional, very tasty, and doesn't involve the subjugation and inhumane treatment of our bovine friends!

So you had no problem with the skinny jeans part?

We actually have more almond milk in our fridge than real milk, and I haven't had coconut milk, but I've heard it's pretty good.

[Jakensama]

Skinny jeans are the way to go if you ain't a fatass. I don't roll that ghetto oversized shit.

[Moristans]

Skinny jeans are the way to go if you ain't a fatass. I don't roll that ghetto oversized shit.

What about jeans that just fit, without either showing ass-crack or being a banana hammock?

[Jakensama]

Well there are certainly bad extremes - when a dude is wearing a womans size 0 thats a bit too hipstertastic. But uniqlo slim fit jeans are the shit, and like $35.