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Safety
- Most drones do not have strong collision-avoiding sensors
- Drones can run into birds, trees, building structures, essentially causing unwanted damage.
This situation can be resolved by creating air zones and perfecting drone sensory.
The USA and Commercial Drones
Europe and Commercial Drones
400-500 feet: Buffer zone
Amazon believes responsibility for traditional air services such as navigation and air traffic control must be delegated. It imagines much of the air navigation being handled in a distributed fashion as drone operators manage their fleets.
Privacy
- Autonomous aircrafts are currently considered unsuitable for regulation due to legal and liability issues; AmazonAir would employ this kind of drone
- Remotely piloted aircrafts are subject to civil regulation under ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) and under the relevant national aviation authority
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FAA Actions and Legislation
Amazon Prime Air
Regulations
Drones can be "equipped with facial recognition, license plate scanners, multiple target trackers, and the ability to operate at distances and heights making them impossible to detect"
- Eight states have already enacted legislation imposing restrictions on police use of drones, while 34 others considered similar legislation this year.
- Most of the bills would require police to obtain a probable cause warrant before they could use a drone to gather information in an investigation.
- The biggest hurdle is that commercial use of UAV technology isn't legal in the United States.
- However, since March 2015, the FAA has allowed the US to start testing of a prototype at a secret Canadian site 2,000 ft from the US border.
- FAA guidelines still require that Amazon's drones fly no higher than 400 ft (122 m), no faster than 100 mph (161 km/h) and remain within the pilot's line of sight.
Texas, Idaho and Oregon have passed laws targeting private drone use.
-Idaho's bill prohibits photography or video recording by drones for profit.
- In February, Charlottesville, Va. became the first city in the U.S. to enact a resolution prohibiting city agencies from buying, leasing,or borrowing drones. Violators have up to a year in jail and a fine up to $10,000.
According to privacy rights lawyer, Charles Tobin, " the many privacy laws that apply to computers... apply to still cameras... wireless microphones... apply to video cameras … and there’s no reason that they can’t be applied – as already written – to UAV"
- UAVs are becoming a business sector with the greatest potential.
- In recent years, Europe has experienced an increase in the amount of new businesses utilizing drones to provide either B2C or B2B services for countless industries.
- In France the number of approved drone operators has increased from 86 (2012) to 431 (2014).
- Europe has over 1,000 operators.
- The drone industry will generate an economic growth of $90 billion in the next five years, and 30K drones will soar in the sky by 2020.
Scenario #1
Amazon Air drones do not require surveillance-related devices and therefore will not carry anything that may jeopardize the privacy of others. The drones will only carry cameras and sensors in order to sense its surroundings.
- Amazon Prime Air continues as expected
- No new legislation will be passed to ensure privacy or decrease liability
- Packages and drones are still easily stolen or damaged
- Collisions between drones and other objects are still probable
Scenario #2
- The drones used will be improved in order to have the latest collision-avoiding technology
- Amazon will regularly update sensors, cameras, and navigation information.
- No additional legislation regarding privacy is passed ( this saves time and resources)
- Customers will get an immediate update once the package is delivered. Once they are notified of this, Amazon is no longer responsible for the package. ( This will be added to the Terms of Agreement)
Typical Uses of Commercial Drones
- Commercial surveillance of crops, livestock, pipeline, and homeland security
- Filmmaking
- Crop spraying
Scenario #3
- The drones used will be improved in order to have the latest collision-avoiding technology
- Amazon will update sensors, cameras, and navigation information annually.
- Additional legislation regarding privacy is passed
- Customers will get an immediate update once the package is delivered. Once they are notified of this, Amazon is no longer responsible for the package. ( This will be added to the Terms of Agreement)
What is a drone?
Pros
Cons
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-Potentially revolutionary market lost
-Air pollution from gas will continue and flourish
-Continued inefficient delivery system
-No unwanted air accidents
-No entirely new field of lawsuits
-No privacy violations
-An end to mass spending on testing and researching of prototypes
Reliability/Potential Liabilities
- Drones are Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)
- 2 kinds of drones: Autonomous and Remotely-piloted aircrafts
- Autonomous: controlled by onboard computer
- Remotely-piloted: controlled by a pilot on the ground or elsewhere
Concerns the FAA and Amazon must first consider:
What is Amazon Prime Air?
Amazon Prime Air is a conceptual drone-based delivery system currently in development by Amazon.com.
1. What is going to stop an individual from stealing a drone package?
2. What will happen when an individual decides to shoot down the drone? Who is responsible for damage control?
3. There could potentially be many lawsuits filed by those injured by any falling drones.
-Will the Courts consider such accidents to be acts of God or fault of commercial operators, manufacturers, and/or pilots?
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Our remit:
To assess whether Amazon Prime Air is a worthwhile investment for the company given the federal and public concerns of the endeavor
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From Amazon's standpoint:
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Our values:
"A future delivery system from Amazon designed to safely get packages into customers' hands in 30 minutes or less using small unmanned aerial vehicles."
Potential Issue
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Cutting out the middle man (postal service), Amazon increases their liability of lost or stolen packages.
Current Delivery System
No longer liable for product delivery/reliability
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New Prime Air System
Responsible for the whole delivery system (including product safety and prompt delivery)
Jetblue airways IPO valuation