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Comment by elahd | Hacker News Reader

>so won't work in a city, since the payload is unsecured after the drones drop it off

My building's roof is at least as secure as its lobby.

Generally you are prohibited from accessing your building's roof unless it has a patio.

If drone delivery becomes an actual thing, roof access for package pickup will be offered as an amenity. Services like Fresh Direct have prompted doorman buildings in NYC to start offering cold storage rooms to keep produce fresh until pickup.

From everyone else in your building? What's top stop the guy in 5B going "Hey... package... thanks" I see a huge uptick in stolen packages. Heck the drones themselves would make a nice parts source flying free over the city. Just have to pick off a couple of them now and then.

I think the point when this becomes in any way practical is really really far off. Interesting demo for sure but pretty sure I'll never have something delivered this way in my lifetime.

A lot of buildings already do that with packages that are delivered to the front door, I doubt in building neighbors stealing your stuff will be an issue.

Yeah, this. UPS/FedEx/USPS just leave packages in the lobby of non-doorman buildings. People tend to respect other people's packages and security cameras help enforce honesty. In years of living in Manhattan I've only had one package go missing -- turned out that it was stolen by the UPS driver (new iPhone on release day in a Verizon branded box).

When the regulators start regulating, I imagine they'll introduce serious penalties for shooting down an aircraft.

I'm pretty sure that shooting down aircraft is already illegal. IANAL, though.

Yeah, really not sure about that one.

Who knows really? Don't mind me, just going to take my AA gun back home.

(Plus, let's also factor in the fact firing weapons inside a city is illegal. But don't mind me)

On one hand, the pool of likely suspects is rather small, and the punishment can actually be rather big if it's USPS, since it's a federal crime. I see that mail fraud laws apply to other carriers such as UPS/Fedex, but I'm not sure if that also extends to mail theft. That said, the reason it applies is because they cross state lines, so I'm not sure if the specific case has to include that as well, which if we're talking about drone delivery, is unlikely.

>What's top stop the guy in 5B going "Hey... package... thanks"

Basic human decency, reciprocal honesty, a $60 Wifi surveillance camera.

Most apartment buildings without a doorman already have this going on, and have for years. My building has a pile of amazon boxes everyday by the front door

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