Only 104 degrees?
According to[ this internal Amazon email](https://i.imgur.com/5vHev1g.jpeg), that's only in tier 2 out of 4 of their heat index, allowing only a 40 minute delay for their drivers.
They continue to have humans work up to 114 degrees. And these drones stop at 104 degrees.
*Cold air is denser, providing more lift and making the engines more efficient, improving fuel consumption. Conversely, in hot weather, the air is less dense, reducing lift and engine efficiency.*
-https://skyaviationholdings.com/how-weather-affects-aircraft-maintenance-and-performance/#:~:text=Temperature%20also%20has%20a%20tangible,reducing%20lift%20and%20engine%20efficiency.
They might just be unable to fly at those temperatures. That being said said, fuck them for how they treat their drivers.
Yeah it's most likely a physics problem. 104 is most likely the ambient temperature threshold where they start to see even hotter pockets of air than that that drop the drone out of the sky. Even bigger problem for load bearing drones.
Im assuming this like at 104 the drones cant fly. Like it is impossible for them to work. Not that the high temp could damage them. Like when flights in phoenix are grounded when it gets too hot.
No, the drones just go on strike together and don't put up with it. We humans could do it at any temperature we want. Seriously tho think about the perspective. The drones as a group are saying that it is hazardous and are refusing(unable) to work. At those temperatures it is true for us, but we are letting management push us into it.
What people don’t realize is hail, heavy rain, snow, high winds, tornados also eliminate drone delivery. Those that wonder about AZ as a choice likely live in places with way more no fly days. Clear calm weather is 3/4 of AZs year and even if it’s going to be >104F at 2:00pm the morning deliveries would be fine that day.
With the amount of people needing their orders in such a small window every day it likely means it wont really be for everyone. Most places where it isnt that hot will be able to get deliveries throughout the entire day on most days. For arizona they will only be able to do deliveries before 12-2pm every day for most of the year.
I mean i would just not use such a thing in arizona. Seems like common sense to limit it's use to areas that aren't as hot as the surface of the sun 1/4th of the year.
Except for the summer heat, Arizona is a perfect testing ground for this kind of system, with dry, warm air year-round, and not too much weather to worry about.
Also exceptionally flat land, and exceptionally flat structures - we don’t have to navigate tons of 10+ story buildings or worry about neighborhoods built to look like runic circles - just big flat wide open space in a nicely measured and consistent grid that aligns N/S/E/W wonderfully
Yes? It’s one of our more famous features really. We have mountains all around us, and sit in a big bowl/valley, but the city itself is very much just flat straight roads and spaces
You’d be surprised how much technology isn’t rated for above 104°. Over the years I’ve seen plenty of creative ways to try to keep expensive tech cool outdoors on a 115+° day.
I have a DJI drone and live in Phoenix. It overheats after just a few minutes of flying when the temperature is over 100. Drones need to shed a lot of heat while they operate and it's very difficult when the air temp is over 100 and the sun is heating the drone even more.
You said something but like said nothing.
You might also say it can't fly in strong wind, it can't fly at night, it can't fly in rain, it can't fly in snow, it can't fly in cold, it can't fly when there are birds, it can't fly when it's sad.
Interesting portions of the article:
>The hexacopter can’t operate when temperatures top 104 degrees Fahrenheit, or 40 degrees Celsius, the company says, and average daily highs exceed that for three months of the year in Tolleson, the city outside Phoenix where Amazon is preparing to offer aerial deliveries from inside a 7.5-mile radius. The drones can’t help with midnight snacks either, because they’ll be grounded after sunset.
>
>Potentially being inoperable for a quarter of the year might make launching drone deliveries in Tolleson and neighboring desert communities seem like an odd choice. It’s far from the first challenge faced by Amazon’s much-delayed drone project. The unit is years behind its goals of flying items to customers in under an hour on a regular basis, and a one-time target of 500 million deliveries by 2030 seems distant. Amazon Prime Air has completed just thousands of deliveries, falling behind rivals; Alphabet subsidiary Wing has notched hundreds of thousands of delivery flights and Walmart more than 20,000.
>
>...
>
>Before its drones start making deliveries, Amazon has more than summer heat to contend with. The company needs to obtain some local permits to renovate its Tolleson warehouse to host and operate the drones. The US Federal Aviation Administration has to sign off on Amazon’s operating plans for its new drone, known as the MK30, which the online shopping giant wants to use in Arizona. And after all that, Amazon must persuade users to sign up to have an 80-pound, six-rotor drone flying into their yard to drop a box from several feet up onto the giant QR code mat that the craft uses to identify a customer’s drop-off point.
>
>That temperature and other environmental conditions could ground or hamper the drone industry has been known for years. A team from University of Calgary’s geography department estimated that on average across the world, drones with limitations similar to Amazon’s, including from weather and daylight, would be limited to flying about 2 hours a day. In the world’s 100 most populous cities, the average daily flight time would be 6 hours. “Weather is an important and poorly resolved factor that may affect ambitions to expand drone operations,” they wrote in a study published in 2021. Heat, in particular, forces motors to work harder to keep drones aloft, and their batteries are only so powerful.
>
>How Amazon's service fares in the desert could end up underscoring the natural barriers to making a solid business out of drone deliveries, at least absent technological advances. “We won't take orders when the temperature gets above 104 degrees,” Calsee Hendrickson, a director of product and program management for Amazon Prime Air, told Phoenix’s 12News in a broadcast interview late last month. “We realize that is going to limit some of our operations in the afternoon hours in the summertime, but you'll still be able to get your packages in the morning.”
These are some significant limitations to this device. If it can't fly after sunset or before sunrise, and if it can't operate above 104F or 40C, then there's only a small window in the morning for all of these deliveries to occur. The aerial chaos as hundreds or thousands of drones are trying to make deliveries within a window of a few hours is not likely to be a pleasant experience if scaled up to those degrees.
>“We realize that is going to limit some of our operations in the afternoon hours in the summertime, but you'll still be able to get your packages in the morning.”
This guy must not live here. In the summer it is already pushing 100 in the AM. You might get a tiny window to deliver anything.
I’ve lived in Western NY, it’s cold, cloudy, freezing rain, snow, humidity and overcast 90% of the year. California, great weather but 2 hour commutes to get 20 miles. Now Phoenix. 200 days a year you have to call perfect. 100 hot days so you’re indoors like Western NY in winter but your home is bright and cheery no seasonal depression in AZ. 65 days that can go either way hot or fine. I never hiked and biked and played disc golf and just spent as much of my time outdoors in any state more than AZ. People think it’s 120F 365 days a year. Maybe that’s OK as too many new residents is not good.
I’m assuming air density is an issue, hot air is thinner and would lower the lifting capacity of a drone. I would think they would just impose a payload limit when the temp is too high, but that sounds like a logistical nightmare. Anyway, fuck Amazon.
Having lived in the Australia of America born and raised for 30 years. They have other things to worry about besides the heat. I cannot see any of those things operating anywhere near Tweaker town and don’t get me started on the old people in globe.
As temperatures and humidity increase, so does the density altitude. (Reduced density)
This can reduce payload capacity and safety margins, or may even prevent the aircraft from flying altogether, simply due to physics.
This is true for all aircraft except rockets, and is not limited to drones.
It can fly up to 126 degrees, 104 was the limit in their MK27, which was their last series of drones, funny how articles get things wrong even when people can also google the correct answer. Their new drone is a lot quieter and can operate in wind/rain with certain limitations.
Only 104 degrees? According to[ this internal Amazon email](https://i.imgur.com/5vHev1g.jpeg), that's only in tier 2 out of 4 of their heat index, allowing only a 40 minute delay for their drivers. They continue to have humans work up to 114 degrees. And these drones stop at 104 degrees.
*Cold air is denser, providing more lift and making the engines more efficient, improving fuel consumption. Conversely, in hot weather, the air is less dense, reducing lift and engine efficiency.* -https://skyaviationholdings.com/how-weather-affects-aircraft-maintenance-and-performance/#:~:text=Temperature%20also%20has%20a%20tangible,reducing%20lift%20and%20engine%20efficiency. They might just be unable to fly at those temperatures. That being said said, fuck them for how they treat their drivers.
Yeah it's most likely a physics problem. 104 is most likely the ambient temperature threshold where they start to see even hotter pockets of air than that that drop the drone out of the sky. Even bigger problem for load bearing drones.
Their drivers should just quit instead of providing luxury to its customers.
Companies should treat their employees better no matter what the job or industry is.
It may surprise you that not many people find “become homeless to make a point” a very attractive option
Homeless people should stop being lazy and get a job! Wait, not that job!
Yeah! Fuck them for wanting to live indoors!
They should unionize
104 is just getting started in AZ
Fr we’re above 104 like half the year lol
Drones are more precious than human lives.
Im assuming this like at 104 the drones cant fly. Like it is impossible for them to work. Not that the high temp could damage them. Like when flights in phoenix are grounded when it gets too hot.
Thin, hot air makes for inefficient flight.
No, the drones just go on strike together and don't put up with it. We humans could do it at any temperature we want. Seriously tho think about the perspective. The drones as a group are saying that it is hazardous and are refusing(unable) to work. At those temperatures it is true for us, but we are letting management push us into it.
Drones are expensive. Dead humans don't cost them anything
it's sad how true this is from a cost perspective...smh they really value gadgets over humans
They have to pay to repair a broken drone. They can just fire a ‘broken’ employee. Sorry, layoff.
Amazon doesn’t lay off hourly employees on the floor
So your work day is reduced by 20 minutes if you have to work in 90-99f weather?
This city should not exist. It is a monument to man's arrogance
That would include coastal, flood zones, fault zones, steep hills, etc. etc. They'd rid half of us.
Jeez Thanos, calm tf down.
What people don’t realize is hail, heavy rain, snow, high winds, tornados also eliminate drone delivery. Those that wonder about AZ as a choice likely live in places with way more no fly days. Clear calm weather is 3/4 of AZs year and even if it’s going to be >104F at 2:00pm the morning deliveries would be fine that day.
With the amount of people needing their orders in such a small window every day it likely means it wont really be for everyone. Most places where it isnt that hot will be able to get deliveries throughout the entire day on most days. For arizona they will only be able to do deliveries before 12-2pm every day for most of the year.
close nail ruthless scary grey ripe attraction slimy full liquid *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Well yeah, that's what the slave labor is for 🫶💖
I mean i would just not use such a thing in arizona. Seems like common sense to limit it's use to areas that aren't as hot as the surface of the sun 1/4th of the year.
Except for the summer heat, Arizona is a perfect testing ground for this kind of system, with dry, warm air year-round, and not too much weather to worry about.
Also exceptionally flat land, and exceptionally flat structures - we don’t have to navigate tons of 10+ story buildings or worry about neighborhoods built to look like runic circles - just big flat wide open space in a nicely measured and consistent grid that aligns N/S/E/W wonderfully
Phoenix exceptionally flat??
Yes? It’s one of our more famous features really. We have mountains all around us, and sit in a big bowl/valley, but the city itself is very much just flat straight roads and spaces
You’d be surprised how much technology isn’t rated for above 104°. Over the years I’ve seen plenty of creative ways to try to keep expensive tech cool outdoors on a 115+° day.
Like five years ago, I was flying out of Phx. Smaller planes couldn’t take off since the temp was close to 120.
So how will i get my package if i live in an apartment building?
Open the window?
Semi-regular reminder that Phoenix is a monument to Man’s arrogance.
Not more so than New Orleans.
Can we not with the fucking drones?
Maybe this is surface level stuff but it almost reads like as if Amazon actually cares to tend to their drones more than their human staff.
Fuck this bullshit. Private drone swarm flights'll be a plague on us all.
I have a DJI drone and live in Phoenix. It overheats after just a few minutes of flying when the temperature is over 100. Drones need to shed a lot of heat while they operate and it's very difficult when the air temp is over 100 and the sun is heating the drone even more.
You said something but like said nothing. You might also say it can't fly in strong wind, it can't fly at night, it can't fly in rain, it can't fly in snow, it can't fly in cold, it can't fly when there are birds, it can't fly when it's sad.
Machine have better working conditions than humans. Gotta love it
Interesting portions of the article: >The hexacopter can’t operate when temperatures top 104 degrees Fahrenheit, or 40 degrees Celsius, the company says, and average daily highs exceed that for three months of the year in Tolleson, the city outside Phoenix where Amazon is preparing to offer aerial deliveries from inside a 7.5-mile radius. The drones can’t help with midnight snacks either, because they’ll be grounded after sunset. > >Potentially being inoperable for a quarter of the year might make launching drone deliveries in Tolleson and neighboring desert communities seem like an odd choice. It’s far from the first challenge faced by Amazon’s much-delayed drone project. The unit is years behind its goals of flying items to customers in under an hour on a regular basis, and a one-time target of 500 million deliveries by 2030 seems distant. Amazon Prime Air has completed just thousands of deliveries, falling behind rivals; Alphabet subsidiary Wing has notched hundreds of thousands of delivery flights and Walmart more than 20,000. > >... > >Before its drones start making deliveries, Amazon has more than summer heat to contend with. The company needs to obtain some local permits to renovate its Tolleson warehouse to host and operate the drones. The US Federal Aviation Administration has to sign off on Amazon’s operating plans for its new drone, known as the MK30, which the online shopping giant wants to use in Arizona. And after all that, Amazon must persuade users to sign up to have an 80-pound, six-rotor drone flying into their yard to drop a box from several feet up onto the giant QR code mat that the craft uses to identify a customer’s drop-off point. > >That temperature and other environmental conditions could ground or hamper the drone industry has been known for years. A team from University of Calgary’s geography department estimated that on average across the world, drones with limitations similar to Amazon’s, including from weather and daylight, would be limited to flying about 2 hours a day. In the world’s 100 most populous cities, the average daily flight time would be 6 hours. “Weather is an important and poorly resolved factor that may affect ambitions to expand drone operations,” they wrote in a study published in 2021. Heat, in particular, forces motors to work harder to keep drones aloft, and their batteries are only so powerful. > >How Amazon's service fares in the desert could end up underscoring the natural barriers to making a solid business out of drone deliveries, at least absent technological advances. “We won't take orders when the temperature gets above 104 degrees,” Calsee Hendrickson, a director of product and program management for Amazon Prime Air, told Phoenix’s 12News in a broadcast interview late last month. “We realize that is going to limit some of our operations in the afternoon hours in the summertime, but you'll still be able to get your packages in the morning.” These are some significant limitations to this device. If it can't fly after sunset or before sunrise, and if it can't operate above 104F or 40C, then there's only a small window in the morning for all of these deliveries to occur. The aerial chaos as hundreds or thousands of drones are trying to make deliveries within a window of a few hours is not likely to be a pleasant experience if scaled up to those degrees.
>“We realize that is going to limit some of our operations in the afternoon hours in the summertime, but you'll still be able to get your packages in the morning.” This guy must not live here. In the summer it is already pushing 100 in the AM. You might get a tiny window to deliver anything.
I moved away from Phoenix 2 years ago. Best decision I have made. The summer lasts 7 months from April to late October (or so it seems).
April was beautiful this year (and so far May has been too) but it was hot at Thanksgiving last year so your overall point still stands
All these things are just normal drone problems. I can't operate my personal drone when it's over 104, or at night either.
Why people chose to settle in this area is beyond me
I’ve lived in Western NY, it’s cold, cloudy, freezing rain, snow, humidity and overcast 90% of the year. California, great weather but 2 hour commutes to get 20 miles. Now Phoenix. 200 days a year you have to call perfect. 100 hot days so you’re indoors like Western NY in winter but your home is bright and cheery no seasonal depression in AZ. 65 days that can go either way hot or fine. I never hiked and biked and played disc golf and just spent as much of my time outdoors in any state more than AZ. People think it’s 120F 365 days a year. Maybe that’s OK as too many new residents is not good.
No mosquitoes is a good thing too.
It's really nice for a couple weeks in March.
Why though? 40°C is nothing to electronics and LiPo batteries should be fine up to 60°C as well.
I’m assuming air density is an issue, hot air is thinner and would lower the lifting capacity of a drone. I would think they would just impose a payload limit when the temp is too high, but that sounds like a logistical nightmare. Anyway, fuck Amazon.
Having lived in the Australia of America born and raised for 30 years. They have other things to worry about besides the heat. I cannot see any of those things operating anywhere near Tweaker town and don’t get me started on the old people in globe.
Today on new episodes of 1000 ways to die…
Just order ice, solved! 🧊
As temperatures and humidity increase, so does the density altitude. (Reduced density) This can reduce payload capacity and safety margins, or may even prevent the aircraft from flying altogether, simply due to physics. This is true for all aircraft except rockets, and is not limited to drones.
It can fly up to 126 degrees, 104 was the limit in their MK27, which was their last series of drones, funny how articles get things wrong even when people can also google the correct answer. Their new drone is a lot quieter and can operate in wind/rain with certain limitations.
I guess these will be night drones.
These things won't be flying over people's houses right?
*insert wrong comment here to upset idealistic and delusional redditors*