re: #100 Killgore Trout

Here’s why I find the 60 minutes promotion for Amazon a little suspicious.
Here’s That Amazon Delivery Drone That You Won’t Actually See For A Long Time

Yes, there’s some news value to the possibility of drone delivery but the free promotion on a news program just looks like one business doing a favor for another business.

There’s probably a market for the service in the future, indicated independently by the announced kozmo.com relaunch. For what should be obvious reasons it will be limited to the same kinds of things Kozmo delivered between 1998 to 2001, ice cream, chips / candy, movies and video games: Drones can only carry so much weight. One problem is that delivery of things like games and movies has shifted heavily towards the internet, where it will always be cheaper, so Prime Air will probably end up being a munchy delivery service for well funded potheads, and I’m not sure how much of a market there is for that. Along that line, in Seattle since it’s legal now someone could probably make a go of delivering pot and pot brownies. Also, while I’m thinking about it “Drone Strike” would be a good name for a strain.

Prescriptions are light so Amazon could expand into an online pharmacy, but then the delivery end point security needs to be very tight, and Amazon will need to keep live pharmacists on staff for consultations.

The other problem is that the highest density and thus most profitable urban areas are going to be some of the more difficult places for drones to make deliveries to. Not all apartment dwellers have balconies, especially those in older buildings. Also not many buildings allow roof access for all residents out of insurance liability concerns. Then there’s the infrastructure obstacles, overhead power and dc mass transit lines. So this might have to roll out into the suburbs first.