We Don’t Need Drone Delivery
Amazon Prime Air in the UK is stumbling and we’re still waiting for the U.S. version to lift off
The other day I ordered some new batteries for my Sony A600 digital camera. I put in the order on Amazon mid-day and, roughly 24 hours later, I was charging up my new camera batteries. Could an Amazon Prime Air drone have gotten them to me faster? Sure, if Amazon were running the program in the U.S. It isn't beyond a handful of test programs.
Over in the UK, the program was apparently somewhat more robust, and also dysfunctional. Wired UK reported this week that Amazon Prime Air in the UK is imploding with massive turnover, confusion, and mismanagement.
In the U.S., the go-slow approach may be protecting Prime Air from that sort of bungling. On the other hand, what’s the rush?
Look, I wanted my batteries, badly. A day earlier, I’d been on a birder/nature walk looking for more unusual passerine species than I can spot in my backyard. For two hours, we wandered around and I spotted nothing. Then, as we headed down a path back to my car, I heard an unusual call. My eyes tracked to the source of the sound, which was coming from the top of a tall maple. It was a large woodpecker. I stopped, positioned my camera, and tapped the shutter button to start focusing. All…
