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Appreciation post: that old Predator drone prediction from Popular Science in 2005
I found a scanned article where they guessed drones would be delivering Amazon packages by 2010 and I just laughed seeing my own 2008 self believing it would totally happen within 2 years. How did we go from that timeline to still waiting on regular drone deliveries in most neighborhoods?
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johnson.adam11d ago
Agree with @hernandez.jordan on this one. The tech side actually got pretty close to ready way faster than people give it credit for, it's the legal and insurance mess that's held everything up. You got local governments fighting over airspace, the FAA dragging their feet on beyond visual line of sight rules, and nobody can agree on who pays when a drone drops a package on someone's car. Plus battery tech just wasn't there yet for the range they promised. So yeah, the 2010 timeline was a pipe dream but we're closer now than most folks realize.
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Oh man, I actually disagree a bit. Drone delivery is happening in a bunch of test markets and a few neighborhoods, it's just taking way longer than the optimistic 2010 prediction because regulations and battery life are harder than they thought.
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