Amazon’s proposal to use drones for express delivery poses challenges

As if we humans already do not have enough mod-cons in the offing, like driverless cars, to turn us into terminally languid couch potatoes, the newest gambit by Amazon threatens to further incapacitate us. Its ‘ octocopters’ will be used apparently to swoop down and deliver merchandise to doorsteps within minutes of the payment being made online, but we all know that new technology invariably expands to include other similar activities. So we could eventually have swarms of ‘dropters’ in every city fetching groceries, dropping mailers, and making all manner of deliveries. They could even be busily buzzing around homes and offices – rather like flies, only useful rather than annoying. In short, if the idea takes off, drones will not only deprive millions of enterprising ‘go-fers’ of their USP — personalised, fast deliveries and chores — they will make us all even more reluctant to leave the comfort of our perches and keyboards.

All this, of course, presupposes that habitually suspicious governments will actually allow these unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to become part of cityscapes, instead of just warzones. No telling what could be triggered by a mistake in zipcodes, after all. Then there is the prospect of the rise of new genre of crimes: drone-jacking and injuries caused by drunken (read, malfunctioning) drones.