Amazon Makes its First Drone Delivery!
Happy Friday, dear readers!
Your humble blogger brings you a fascinating bit of news today that had me convinced it was fake until every major news source confirmed it: Amazon has successfully made its first drone-only delivery.
According to this article from the NY Times the delivery was a test-drive which resulted in a 13-minute delay from order to delivery. The video is very, very cool:
Now, this is just a test, and it occurred in Merry Old England, but imagine the implications here. If this could be a regular thing for Amazon and its distribution centers in the United States, we’re looking at less demand for human labor, and lower costs for customers.
From what’s in the video, it looks like the weight limitation will be a very serious consideration for a while, and deliveries will continue to be made by humans. However, this is a first step to automated delivery. Eventually, heavier items will be delivered by flying drone (or driving drone) to the point where a growing segment of the current parcel delivery labor pool will be freed up for other work.
What does this mean for workers’ compensation? The same as the rest of it – the world that once called out for workers’ compensation laws as they rare is shrinking, and with it shrinks the relevancy of our beloved system.
Do you think, sometime soon, we will look up and see drones instead of the sky? To quote Dienekes, then we will litigate in the shade.
Have a good weekend, dear readers!