Drone Delivery … Can These Systems Impact E-Commerce Results?
Good ideas are common. What’s uncommon are people who will work hard enough to bring them to fruition. Technology is constantly changing, growing, and advancing. With these changes comes a great deal of speculation about what the result of these changes will be. The most significant issues that are affecting E-commerce corporations in the US are whether or not drone delivery systems should be legal and whether they will impact results.
While delivery drones do have a number of benefits, those which will be discussed below, there has also been a great deal of backlash, which we will also discuss.
Overview
Do you have the vision of package delivery from an e-commerce site to wherever you may be? Delivering packages wherever you want it, through the air, via drone in just 30 minutes – that is Amazon’s vision and the company just made another step forward.
On the heels of getting FAA permission for experimental test flights in the United States in March, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has published Amazon’s patent application for its drone delivery system.
The patent application reveals new details on just how this delivery system by drone would work. We will describe more details shortly.
For starters, Amazon is thinking beyond home delivery. They’re thinking delivery to wherever you are at the moment.
Delivery drones have many capabilities.
Drone delivery … capabilities
Here are some of the key capabilities:
The delivery drones can cross-communicate to relay important details like weather conditions and help with route planning.
Drones will autonomously plan safe(r) routes when possible — “for example, if the UAV’s route must cross over a road… the navigation of the route may be adjusted to minimize the intersection between the UAV’s path and the road.”
Though the UAV’s will operate autonomously, pilots may be used to help land the devices. This landing data can then be saved to fully automate the delivery next time.
The drones “may constantly monitor for humans or other animals that may be in the path or planned path of the UAV and modify the navigation of the UAV to avoid” them.
The customer may be able to select a variety of delivery options, such as home, work, or “my boat.”
The drone will be able to deliver the purchased goods directly to the customer wherever they are, by using their current GPS location. The drone could then follow them using this GPS data so it is able to find them and deliver the item, even if they change locations.
Depending on the package being delivered, the drones may be a variety of sizes. And they won’t be restricted to the standard 4-blade quadcopter model — some “may include fixed wings and/or a combination of both propellers and fixed wings.”
Drone delivery service … pros and cons
Pros of a drone delivery system
The business model is pretty simple – delivery quality goods swiftly and at a low price.
By delivering products by drone, businesses will be able to further increase the influence and prevalence of its brand on the online retail market.
Those who order from e-commerce businesses utilizing drone delivery will theoretically receive their products within 30 minutes of purchase via a small drone device.
First and foremost, whoever is able to achieve its drone delivery system, and then its brand will be recognized as a revolutionary in product delivery. Currently, there are no other brands out there that have been able to institute a drone delivery system.
Another advantage of such a delivery system that is bound to heighten its brand image and increase client satisfaction is the promise of speedy delivery.
Most people may not think of this advantage, but the reality is that a brand stands to gain big from the drone delivery system, especially because it will portray the company as an environmentally conscious brand. With drone delivery systems, fewer transportation carriers will be traveling on roads and be polluting the atmosphere.
Cons of a drone delivery system
The disadvantages are not only societal in scope, but they also extend into the legal realm. Below are a few examples of the backlash being created by drone delivery system ideas:
One major contention regarding Amazon’s drone delivery system is that it may be a form of trespass on private property when it flies over the airspace above a person’s property. In addition to this problem, if the drone somehow fails and falls on private property, many people are arguing that the drone ceases to belong to the business operating the system, including the package that the drone is carrying.
Another very real problem with a drone system is that the Federal Aviation Administration has tacked on some strict and constraining rules on the delivery system. Under the FAA’s rules, the drones will not be able to fly over people and when the drone is in operation, there must be an on-the-ground observer monitoring the safety of the drone at all times.
These types of regulations pose severe obstacles. Having an on-the-ground monitor and preventing the drone from flying over people will add severe cost for the system.
Another field that the drone systems are going to affect is the insurance industry. One of the main purposes of the drone system, aside from meeting customer demand, is to reduce the cost of operation.
With the drone delivery system, these plans may be thwarted because regulators may require brands to have insurance policies on the drone system. The insurance policies that the brands will be required to institute will not be cheap, but very costly.
Finally, the drone system can lead to injuries to both the operational businesses and people who are subject to having drones flown over them.
Who’s who in delivery drones
Amazon Prime Air – Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos‘ December 2013 announcement that Amazon was planning rapid delivery of lightweight commercial products using UAVs was met with skepticism, with perceived obstacles including federal and state regulatory approval, public safety, reliability, individual privacy, operator training and certification, security (hacking), payload thievery, and logistical challenges.
In July 2014 it was revealed Amazon was working on its 8th and 9th drone prototypes, some that could fly 50 miles per hour and carry 5-pound packages, and had applied to the FAA to test them.
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Google revealed in August 2014 it had been testing UAVs in Australia for two years. The Google X program is known as “Project Wing” aims to produce drones that can deliver not only products sold via e-commerce but larger delivery items.
Matternet is a Silicon Valley startup developing small UAVs for the delivery of lightweight goods. It had its origins in 2011 out of Singularity University, based at the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA. Their transportation solution comprises small UAVs able to carry up to 1-kilogram goods over distances of up to 20 kilometers on a battery charge.
It’s been reported that Matternet is also developing automatic landing stations, where the UAVs would swap batteries to extend their range.
USPS has been testing delivery systems with HorseFly Drones. FedEx is reported to be testing integration of drone delivery with their existing logistics model.
UK based FPS Distribution and Switzerland’s Swiss Post are both developing drone delivery services for wide-scale use.
In December 2014 French mail services company La Poste unveiled experimental[ delivery drone project.
In July 2015 FAA endorsed Let’s fly wisely by Flirty an Australian startup to deliver medicines via drones in the USA.
Challenges Ahead
Like all autonomous robots, delivery drones have three fundamental tasks. They have to understand their position in the physical world. They have to reason where they should go next. And they have to actually execute the control maneuvers to get there.
It turns out that the basics of getting from one place to another, under ideal conditions, are not that difficult. Some hobbyist drones can fly through a set of waypoints on their own. Others can follow a signal down on the ground. But these capabilities are more in the realm of autopilot than autonomy: They simply hold a bearing, altitude, and speed. It’s kind of like cruise control in the sky. It’s a pretty huge leap from cruise control to self-driving cars and the same is true of the jump from autopilot to self-flying vehicles.
But what is hard is dealing with the thousands of unexpected scenarios and “edge cases” that would inevitably crop up if these systems were deployed at scale. It’s the sum of how the vehicles handle all those difficult situations that add up to a reliable technology.
Here is what is new in legislation.
What’s new in Legislation?
A cadre of startups are building, flying and selling them, and behemoths Amazon and Google have ambitious delivery projects in the works.
Now policy groups tied to these tech firms are scrambling to block legislation moving through California that could dash those dreams, seriously impeding efforts to deploy drones for commercial use.
Senate Bill 142 restricts the flight of unmanned aerial vehicles under 350 feet above properties without the permission of those property owners or legal entities. The bill passed the California Assembly recently, by a wide margin (56 to 13), and is heading to the state Senate for a vote soon. If passed, it would land on the desk of California Governor Jerry Brown.
If signed, advocacy groups that represent many of the largest Silicon Valley firms say it would create a litigious nightmare, hamper public use cases of drones and land a blow to a burgeoning tech market.
In June, the bill’s language was tweaked, moving from requiring the “consent” of property owners for drones to fly to demanding “express permission.” That new language, tech advocates said, refocuses the bill on property rights and tightens restrictions on potential uses.
Advocates said that the bill’s height restrictions (most drones now operate somewhere between 200 feet and 500 feet above ground) and consent rules would cripple future deliveries. How can you get a package at your doorstep if your neighbor’s yard is a no-fly zone?
California is not alone. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 46 different states have weighed 156 different drone bills in 2015 alone.
What’s to know about the testing status
Most of the firms experimenting in this space are keeping their testing results under wraps, though some information is beginning to leak out.
When Amazon announced it planned to deliver well with drones in December 2013, the news was treated with some skepticism, but since then it has pushed ahead with trials. Much of its testing has been carried out in the United Kingdom in Cambridge, due to restrictions on the use of UAVs in the United States (although the company was granted a license to conduct US trials by the FAA last month).
The first drone delivery approved by the Federal Aviation Administration went off without a hitch recently in Wise County, Virginia. Flirty, an Australian drone-delivery startup, piloted a drone carrying medical supplies from an airfield to a medical clinic.
As the Wall Street Journal noted, the July 17 trip from the supplying pharmacy to the clinic is about 35 miles, over windy roads. Flirtey’s drone, like most commercial drones on the market, isn’t able to stay in the air for that sort of distance, and so the company worked with NASA, which flew the supplies to an airfield about a mile from the clinic.
NASA’s plane was an experimental drone of its own—a modified Cirrus SR22 that can be controlled remotely.
Flirtey’s trip marked the first time the FAA has allowed a drone to deliver something in the US and could pave the way for future drone-delivery systems, like the ones Amazon and Google are trying to get off the ground. The FAA is in the process of finalizing its regulations for flying drones in public, which it hopes to have in place by next year.
Flirtey’s nine-minute flight showed the potential for using drones to deliver goods to remote or inhospitable areas, such as disaster site, but those areas are a bit different than the populated areas where Amazon hopes to use drones to deliver products in. As the Wall Street Journal points out, the proposals under consideration at the FAA suggest that drone deliveries, especially those in which the pilot cannot keep the drone within view, would still likely be banned.
In another example, an Australian test flight and 30 others like it conducted in mid-August are the culmination of the first phase of Project Wing, the secret drone program that’s been running for two years at Google X, the company’s whoa-inducing, long-range research lab.
System solution concepts
Amazon submitted its drone patent in September 2014, but the details are only now being published by the US Patent and Trademark Office after it approved the ideas.
For many, Amazon’s idea of delivery via drone was seen as pie-in-the-sky, but the details it provides in its system solution patent application suggest that the firm is taking the idea seriously and working hard to overcome a variety of technical and other obstacles.
Amazon faces many regulatory hurdles before its plans can be turned into reality. But Amazon is leading the effort to convince the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) to approve the widespread commercial use of drones.
According to the plans, Amazon’s drones will be able to update their routes in real-time. A mock-up delivery screen suggests that people will be able to choose from a variety of delivery options – from “bring it to me” to nominating their home, place of work or even “my boat” as places for packages to be dropped.
Other patent details include:
Amazon will employ a variety of unmanned vehicles depending on the shape and weight of the product
Flight sensors, radar, sonar, cameras and infrared sensors will be employed to ensure safe landing zones are found
The unmanned vehicle would constantly monitor its path for humans or other animals and modify navigation to avoid such obstacles
Amazon’s plans for drone delivery puts increasing pressure on the FAA to allow more US-based drone research and development.
It has been criticized for dragging its heels on regulation and losing the impetus on drone development which has gone to other countries, most notably the UK which will build a drone research center in London.
Recently the FAA did make progress towards relaxing its rules on drone use, giving the go-ahead for unmanned helicopters to be used for spraying crops in the US as well as announcing plans for testing news-gathering drones in urban areas in partnership with CNN.
It also said it would also test commercial drones that can fly beyond an operator’s line of sight for inspecting railways.
The bottom line
There are many things that brands who are considering a drone system can take away from this scenario. First and most importantly, brand expansion is the key to success. Customers are constantly looking for the better brand that is going to offer them the quality products and service that they are looking for.
At the heart of it, before implementing any strategy, brands need to weigh both the benefits and disadvantages of establishing the system. Clearly, there are many benefits. But at this stage of system development, there are far more hurdles (and costs) to outweigh the benefits. We’ll just have to wait and see if this system technology will ever make a clear impact on e-commerce results.
If you are looking for additional resources in innovation, one of my favorite experts is Stephen Shapiro. You’ll find lots of good stories and examples to learn in his blog.
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Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
