Challenges for Amazon Prime Air

On 60 minutes tonight, Jeff Bezos announced Amazon Prime Air, a delivery service Amazon is working towards that will deliver 5 lbs or under packages via autonomous quadcopter drones. Autonomous means no pilot will be flying or monitoring them. They will be flown entirely by computer with preloaded GPS coordinates.

The drones would have a 10 mile flight range in a radius around Amazon distribution centers. The drones would be quick and enable 30 min or less delivery times.

As someone with a computer vision background, this is an exciting announcement. It is also a surprising announcement because there are several fundamental challenges for autonomous flight that have not been solved.

Computer Vision Challenges

The most difficult challenge is that computer vision is still not very good at arbitrary scene object detection. There is no way drones will be able to navigate through complicated environments. Things like power lines, trees, and moving objects are tough for quadcopters to autonomously detect and avoid.

Quadcopter Challenges

Wind and inclement weather will impact the quadcopter program. This challenge means that deliveries will probably be suspended until weather improves. It’s not a showstopper challenge.

Regulatory Challenges

How many quadcopters will the FAA allow in the air? How many lawsuits will arise from the disturbances? UPS and FedEx will put up a fight similar to taxi services fighting Uber or car dealerships fighting Tesla. These challenges will result in drastic delays, but will ultimately fail to stop Amazon.

—

Of those 3 challenges, the computer vision challenges are the toughest to surmount. My guess is that there will be a very specific protocol by which the drones will arrive. Recipients will have to put out some sort of landing mat that has a well defined target for the drone to detect from the sky. Recipients will be required to ensure that there is nothing impeding flight in an area directly vertical from the landing pad. Quadcopters will land in a direct vertical line to the pad. It might not be quite the arbitrary doorstep landing as shown in the conceptual videos, but it will be awesome!

I look forward to watching Amazon and Jeff Bezos continue to change the technology landscape and push industries forward.

What are your thoughts on Amazon Prime Air?