abgd - I think I'll have to disagree with you on many of the responses....
I order a large quantity of items from Amazon both for personal and business usage. Although yes, there are SOME smaller items, I would say that the majority of items I purchase are medium sized boxes which rarely weigh less than 2kilos. A box of A4 paper packs is a very common order of mine, as is printer ink toners (which again are quite large) from them. The size of the drone required to lift this, and fly safely with a canopy to keep the paper dry would need to be the size of a baby pram! I seriously doubt that they're going to be developing anything that size.
The loading of the drones, even if eventually done by robots, in addition to the time taken to return the drone to base between every drop due to limited capacity.
2.
https://vimeo.com/152279231 There?s a new way to take down drones, and it doesn?t involve shotguns | Ars Technica UK
65-year-old woman shoots down drone: ?It hovered for a second and I blasted it to smithereens.? | Ars Technica UK
New rifle shoots drones out of the sky without firing a single bullet ? BGR
Amongst probably many other ways to down a drone. Kids will not only love the challenge, but also love ANY goodies they get and resell them on eBay or something like that...
Your idea of Police copters with cameras did make me laugh - I'll be honest it reminded me of an episode of South Park Season 18 - Episode 5 to be precise. Have a watch of that - do you really think we'll end up with that?
Also be aware of the issues re: privacy, drones with camera flying over a city? Hmmm... Something tells me that's not going to be liked by many people!
3. Have you considered the cost of replacing those highly flammable, explosively dangerous Li-Ion batteries that can only do a certain number of charge cycles reliably?
4. 5. 6. 7. OK - This does depend on too many factors, which may well be able to be sorted out in time (not my lifetime I dont think). I assumed the packages would be hanging under the drones and clamped on to enable the drones to carry larger - irregular shape items, which is essentially all I seem to be ordering from them. As for them operating in IMC? Are you sure that's a good idea?
8. Just an approved mode S transponder costs more than a £1000 alone.... So that's unlikely to be the case. Even if they do design their own, I doubt the CAA will just let them use if without being fully approved by them, and that R&D will take upwards of 5 years, cost a huge amount of time etc... That cost will need to be offset at some level in their production line.
9. What happens if you live in the basement, or share a room in a flat? Or conditions make it difficult to reach one side more than another? GPS coordinates being accurate? How do they obtain the GPS coordinates? Google Maps has put my house over 50m of where it actually is!! A basket, will also get wet, will the basket be big enough to handle the packages, will everyone wanting to use the service have to purchase specific baskets to be able to receive their packages? I am sorry - I just don't see this happening...
10. Perhaps one taxation rule for them, and another for us (who actually pay taxes). But I doubt that if one of the drones crashes killing someone will go lightly! I am pretty sure that laws apply in this circumstances, and drones will need to be insured, hence have airworthy certificates, and thus also require someone (whoever that might be) to be responsible for the death of / injury of / damage of, person, animal property etc...
I'll add 11. Which is how does the pollution of noise, and level of traffic at low level affect the birds living in the city? What is the environmental impact of having thousands of drones flying all over the city? What is the noise impact for people living there? What is the level of camera activity that will be allowed, how does that sit with privacy laws...etc... There are so many issues that can and in my humble opinion WILL squash any possibility of this.
I'd have to confess to being one of these pilots that really really REALLY dislike drones (in the sense quadcopters, not as in UAV). Possibly stemming from encountering a few at altitude (3,000' to 4,000') and only very nearly avoiding them. It has happened to be twice in the south east, and once in Denmark as well as once in Holland. I am talking less than 20 metres away from the plane, and having to take evasive action for my safety, the safety of my passengers, and the safety of the people below, in addition to both cosmetic and structural damage it would cause my plane. About that - in such instance - who pays for the repairs providing that I manage to survive the ordeal? I somewhat doubt that the absolute idiot who flew it would have insurance covering him for that. If there was loss of life, would this idiot get life imprisonment for murder? Or would he get off with just manslaughter?
I am not attempting to disrepute the well-informed, law abiding individuals who operate them safely in open spaces, below 400ft, outside of controlled airspace. Similar to remote control aeroplanes - I don't mind them AT ALL.