Think Amazon’s Drone Delivery Idea Is a Gimmick? Think Again

So what’s Amazon’s ultimate aim in delivery? After talking to analysts, partners and competitors, and prying some very minimal input from Amazon itself, I suspect the company has a two-tiered vision for the future of shipping.

First, it’s not trying to replace third-party shippers. Instead, over the next few years, Amazon wants to add as much capacity to its operations as possible, and rather than replace partners like UPS and FedEx, it is spending boatloads on planes, trucks, crowdsourcing and other novel delivery services to add to its overall capacity and efficiency.

Amazon’s longer-term goal is more fantastical — and, if it succeeds, potentially transformative. It wants to escape the messy vicissitudes of roads and humans. It wants to go fully autonomous, up in the sky. The company’s drone program, which many in the tech press dismissed as a marketing gimmick when Mr. Bezos unveiled it on “60 Minutes” in 2013, is central to this future; drones could be combined with warehouses manned by robots and trucks that drive themselves to unlock a new autonomous future for Amazon.

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Drone Detects and Disarms Landmines 20 Times Faster Than Humans

A few years back, brothers and inventors Massoud and Mahmud Hassani unveiled a clever and widely-celebrated landmine clearing device resembling a giant dandelion puff that rolled over terrain like a tumbleweed, detonating and clearing landmines in its path. The rolling device called the mine kafon also had an onboard computer that logged the GPS locations of any discovered mines to help map areas that were likely heavy with landmines as well as safe paths.

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ELECTRICITY BY DRONE

many companies are exploring drone delivery to get the job done. In areas where the power grid has been leapfrogged by home solar, solar-powered drones can be the final link in the supply chain, safely and reliably depositing orders directly to consumers — no roads or fossil fuels necessary. Each rooftop panel could become a charging station for delivery drones. The drones can make deliveries throughout a region while stopping to recharge on homes with charging stations connected to solar panels. Without having to go back to its home base, the deliveries are faster, more efficient, and cheaper. Plus, the customers get credit for the power that the drones sip from their panels.

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Cutting Edge of Drone Tech

A team of researchers deployed some of the most advanced drone technology available outside of the military this Wednesday — in Plainfield, a central Vermont town of just over 1,200 people.

The engineers, armed with the map, will then be able to make smarter, faster and safer repairs to bridges running over the stream than if they used conventional surveying methods to gather data.

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High-tech Tools Raise Quality of Real Estate Listings

According to the National Association of Realtors, 89 percent of all homebuyers use online tools and resources in their home search. Technology has changed nearly every aspect of the way we live, so it is only natural that it affects the way sellers and their Realtors market and sell homes. With so much high-quality media online, the bar has been raised for online real estate listings to really "wow" buyers.

Unmanned aerial vehicles, more commonly known as drones, can be used to take aerial photos of your home and the surrounding property. New drone technologies can help your agent market your home in a way that may have been cost-prohibitive in the past.

By using a few of these tools, you can make your home’s listing more appealing to buyers. Contact a Realtor today to see how these tech tools can be used to successfully sell your home.

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Drone Racing Tips to Get Every Beginner in Gear

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