Not too long the book you ordered from Amazon could be flying some feet up in the air - http://money.cnn.com/2013/12/01/technology/amazon-drone-delivery/

Wonder how the buyer will  take delivery?

Would love to capture the drone vs. the item!!!

Someone just commented that we will most likely see self-driving cars on the roads before we see these really being used.

FAA regulations, for one.

The multirotor's are bound to disrupt the industry. There are many many researches in universities that are on the edge of commercialization. Amazon's is a prototype, it has lots of stuffs to go into. The video skips all the complexity, it is likely to give the investor's the lollypop of being at the technical forefront. But, sooner or later, it is going to become a commonplace. Even before Bezos does anything big, China has a couple of courier services experimenting the exact same idea. If you are keeping track of technology, you'd realize Tesla is working on similar problem, albeit they are more on ground autonomous vehicles. (slightly different than Google car).

Some good stuffs to look out for in next year (or next to next) are here: http://www.rcindia.org/rc-general-topics/intelligent-flying-machines/msg161983/#msg161983

I would be awesome if some of us could collaboratively build out something bigger than just the hobby, it is the hot cake.

-- Chindichor

Self driving car's are going to be a reality very soon, at least in San Francisco. Google car and Tesla both have been working aggressively. Amazon is working out a plan with FAA for flying AUV for delivery. Biggies like them will be able to get something bent to make it a reality.

I guess we will see this too

http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-whats-going-to-happen-when-you-miss-your-amazon-drone-delivery-humor-2013-12

was just reading the notification from mythbuster facebook page about the same  

we all know how quad works , even there are regulations and law for quad , i would say it is a cheap publicity stunt by amazon

Yep.  Too many practical issues with multiple automated crafts crowding the skies.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/02/amazon-drone-delivery-jeff-bezos-hype

lol, yeah... the way the front-running tech companies are planning to bring sci-fi to the real life, there are quite a bit pun is being created of this, like this cool video:



You see the classic time-travel paradox.


The Guardian and common media are just bunch of heavy heads. All they need is page views on the articles. They will provide counter views, they will do everything that are spicy and have a sense of conspiracy. 3D printers were a reality back in 1980s. As recently as 2007, there were people were saying, "would you download a car?" and all the techies answered that they would, if they could. Now you can just assemble some mechanical linkages, some Arduino boards, build a RepRap. And, go ahead, download the car from internet and print it. So, I disagree with all the media denying this fact. I am not saying it is going to be easy, but it is going to be a reality.

Seeing progress and investment done in Hyperloop, SpaceX and Stem cell, I think Drone are the easiest of the challenges that techies have.

-- Chindichor

If Amazon can achieve robust environmental awareness, awareness in unstructured environments,situational awareness, advanced inertial navigation systems and ability to communicate with the rest of the infrastructure etc. and put it into a flight controller, then yes it may be possible.Some of these technologies are present, but either are bulky or need more refinement.

I dont know if anyone has observed lately but most of the sci-fi movies and tv series have cool multirotors in them, recently I had seen one in "Marvels Agents of Shield", looks like a hubsan clone, but with 3d scanners and whatnot.

But with CERN working on Antigravity, future may hold something different all together.

http://inhabitat.com/cern-anti-gravity-and-flying-cars-could-soon-be-here/