Wednesday, December 04, 2013
Amazon, drones and an Owl service
The South Wales Evening Post is very exercised by the proposal by Amazon to one day use unmanned drones called Octocopters out of their Jersey Marine fulfilment centre to deliver goods to customers within 30 minutes of them being ordered. I had to check the date, but no, it is not April 1st.
The company's Chief Executive Jeff Bezos claims the Octocopters could deliver packages weighing up to 2.3kg, but that it could be five years before we start seeing them hovering above Swansea or Neath rooftops for example:
"I know this looks like science fiction, but it's not," Mr Bezos told CBS television's 60 Minutes programme.
"We can do half-hour delivery... and we can carry objects, we think, up to five pounds (2.3kg), which covers 86 per cent of the items that we deliver."
The service will be called Prime Air and will get around that annoying thing about online shopping - having to wait a day at least before receiving what you have ordered.
Amazon has even posted a video on its website showing a drone picking up a package from one of its warehouses and delivering it to the doorstep of a customer's house.
The response from Amazon's rivals has been admirable and robust. Waterstones have announced that they are to launch their own alternative service. Called the Ornithological Waterstones Landing Service, they say it is a brand new way to receive your favourite books:
O.W.L.S. consists of a fleet of specially trained owls that, either working individually or as an adorable team, will be able to deliver your package within thirty minutes of you placing your order.
Putting O.W.L.S. into commercial use will take a number of years as it takes ages to train owls to do anything and we only just thought of it this morning.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Isn’t this just what they did in Harry Potter?
A: Yes, this is exactly what they did in Harry Potter. You’re asking that as if this is a bad thing.
Q: Won’t this be really expensive?
A: No, it’ll only cost you £2.75 per parcel. (Price subject to inflation between now and the as yet undisclosed point in the future when we will launch the service.)
Have they told J.K. Rowling?
The company's Chief Executive Jeff Bezos claims the Octocopters could deliver packages weighing up to 2.3kg, but that it could be five years before we start seeing them hovering above Swansea or Neath rooftops for example:
"I know this looks like science fiction, but it's not," Mr Bezos told CBS television's 60 Minutes programme.
"We can do half-hour delivery... and we can carry objects, we think, up to five pounds (2.3kg), which covers 86 per cent of the items that we deliver."
The service will be called Prime Air and will get around that annoying thing about online shopping - having to wait a day at least before receiving what you have ordered.
Amazon has even posted a video on its website showing a drone picking up a package from one of its warehouses and delivering it to the doorstep of a customer's house.
The response from Amazon's rivals has been admirable and robust. Waterstones have announced that they are to launch their own alternative service. Called the Ornithological Waterstones Landing Service, they say it is a brand new way to receive your favourite books:
O.W.L.S. consists of a fleet of specially trained owls that, either working individually or as an adorable team, will be able to deliver your package within thirty minutes of you placing your order.
Putting O.W.L.S. into commercial use will take a number of years as it takes ages to train owls to do anything and we only just thought of it this morning.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Isn’t this just what they did in Harry Potter?
A: Yes, this is exactly what they did in Harry Potter. You’re asking that as if this is a bad thing.
Q: Won’t this be really expensive?
A: No, it’ll only cost you £2.75 per parcel. (Price subject to inflation between now and the as yet undisclosed point in the future when we will launch the service.)
Have they told J.K. Rowling?
