I came across Kexin Cheng’s blog post which discusses how Amazon is planning on launching a drone delivery program. Rather than hiring someone to drive across the country and deliver a package, why not have a machine do it for you? Logistically, the drones will cut costs, conserve gasoline, and lower CO2 emissions. But is this really a viable mean of transportation? Not necessarily. The main focus of the Amazon drone delivery system regards sustainability – something we recently learned about in class. However, sustainability is not just revolved around the protection of the environment. It also must take into consideration its people, and cutting people of jobs will only have negative effects on the economy. This ties into my previous post on Maria Starko’s blog regarding Eatsa Restaurant. It’s the same concept – people being replaced by machines.

There’s also the question of, what happens when a package fails to be delivered because of a number of different factors? How are these drones supposed to withstand unpredictable weather conditions? How does Amazon know that the package has been delivered into the hands of the right person? The rapid escalation of technology abilities interests me very much. I am curious to see how the economy will react to certain industry replacements, because technology may not always be on our side.

Sources: https://blogs.ubc.ca/kxchengcommerce/2015/10/12/amazon-drones-delivery-a-revolution-of-logistics/

Photo: http://images.technewstoday.com.s3.amazonaws.com/tnt/amazoncom-can-now-test-its-drone-designs-with-faas-approval.jpg