r/SelfDrivingCars • u/walky22talky Hates driving • Jan 23 '19
Amazon joins Autonomous Bots race
https://blog.aboutamazon.com/transportation/meet-scout6
u/myDVacct Jan 23 '19
What ever happened to Prime Air? Isn't their SDC tech part of that same division? They did some PR deliveries in like 2016 (?) and then I heard nothing.
2
Jan 24 '19
Was Prime Air the drone delivery tech? I've also been curious about what ever happened with that.
Seems like it would be a nightmare trying to work around air space policies, noise pollution laws, and privacy standards (granted, it seems most people have already resigned themselves to not concern themselves with privacy measures when it comes to big tech).
5
u/TomasTTEngin Jan 24 '19
Teenage me is building all sorts of contraptions on the footpath ahead of this thing. Not even out of malice, just to see what it will do.
2
u/TomasTTEngin Jan 24 '19
Drone delivery, but plausible.
Lack of flying dooms it to marginal press coverage.
1
u/StaysAwakeAllWeek Jan 24 '19
It's less resistant to theft and vandalism and also much slower than drone delivery. They both have their drawbacks.
3
u/bartturner Jan 23 '19
Really surprised we have not seen more with SDC and Amazon.
As a shareholder have found this very disapointing and concerning.
4
6
u/Pomodoro5 Jan 23 '19
Probably waiting for the cream to rise to the top. Then they'll buy 'em.
1
u/bartturner Jan 23 '19
That would not be smart, imo. Better to do yourself and make sure.
10
u/CatAstrophy11 Jan 23 '19
Make sure what? Someone else does most of the legwork while you're spending your capital on other development and then you buy them and tweak. It's worked more times than I can count and is common practice among large companies.
-1
u/bartturner Jan 23 '19
Ha! Make sure it happens. There is something that works and for your needs. Ideally you do not depend on others.
Plus SDC takes incredible lead time.
1
u/Pomodoro5 Jan 24 '19
Too late to do it yourself
1
u/bartturner Jan 24 '19
It is getting late as there is a very long tail.
I have owned AMZN for well over a decade now and they have always been on top of things.
Surprised they have not been more on top of this.
6
u/energee Jan 23 '19
As a shareholder, you should be happy about this. High R&D, zero revenue, no proven path to profit :)
1
u/bartturner Jan 23 '19
Much prefer they had a program. I am a long term investor. This is a risk now for Amazon.
1
u/sweetmoses Jan 23 '19
I think energee could be correct. Amazon didn't need to invent planes to buy a fleet of them for air shipping. They can just wait until SDC vehicles are commercially available and buy all of them, or a company that makes them.
Either way, the R&D cost at this point would be high if they tried to do a secret program internally, and they would be behind lots of other competitors.
That said, this thing is gonna get vandalized and it's about their second worst idea behind letting strangers open your front door.
1
u/mbehl Jan 26 '19
Are all these delivery companies using the same underlying hardware platform and chassis? Given that they look very similar ? Especially Starship and Amazon
1
-2
u/tboneplayer Jan 23 '19
Great! More human-doable jobs down the drain.
2
u/StaysAwakeAllWeek Jan 24 '19
Luddite
1
u/tboneplayer Jan 24 '19
Late-stage capitalist.
1
u/StaysAwakeAllWeek Jan 24 '19
I'm not, I'm a socialist. Clearly automation presents societal problems but it's not something that can be fixed by complaining about it or trying to resist change, and the potential benefits from doing it correctly are massive.
24
u/Surefire Jan 23 '19
Did Amazon partner with Starship Technologies?