China begins using drones

In building drones that kill people, the U.S. has a couple-decade head start on China.

But when it comes to domestic uses, U.S. businesses are hamstrung because the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) isn’t required to issue commercial drone rules until 2015. The Atlantic carries a story about this:

“One of China’s biggest delivery companies is tinkering with using drones—with Chinese government permission. SF Express is testing a drone it has built for delivering packages to remote areas, according to Chinese media reports. The drone can hit an maximum altitude of 328 feet and deliver parcels within two meters of its target. It’s not clear what sort of weight these puppies can handle, but Beijing journalists calculated that it probably can’t carry more than 6.6 pounds.

T”he news broke yesterday morning, after a Sina Weibo user noticed what looked like a UFO hovering above a street in Dongguang, in southern China, and after noticing a SF Express logo, posted images online. In July, a Shanghai bakery launched aerial cake delivery—or “pie in the sky,” as the Telegraph put it (video below). However, as an anonymous government official told the Shanghai Daily at the time, businesses that want to use drones must be granted approval from the local civil aviation authorities first. The bakers forgot to do that, apparently. However, the Dongguan police said that, except during certain sensitive times, commercial operators who receive permission from the civil aviation regulator and air traffic control are allowed to fly drones. SF Express says it’s strictly complying with the policies.

“Drone delivery undoubtedly has a certain appeal to the Chinese authorities, who are increasingly struggling to control both traffic and pollution in China’s major cities. On top of that, e-commerce is growing much faster than delivery infrastructure in rural and mountainous parts of China, such that logistics systems are emerging as a big area of investment. In fact, a consortium including CITIC Capital took a 25 percent stake in SF Express in late August. Continue reading “China begins using drones”

Who cares about Saturday mail delivery?

Blame it on  Amazon.com.

In an age when hard-copy mail seems out of date, people under 30 are the biggest protesters to canceling Saturday mail deliveries in the U.S.  It seems getting those one-day package deliveries must be habit-forming. African-Americans of all ages don’t like the idea either. But it seems older white people just don’t care much either way, as Pew reports from its most recent survey:

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“A majority of Americans (54%) approve of the U.S. Postal Service’s recent decision to halt Saturday delivery of letters, while 32% disapprove of the decision. The planned end of Saturday mail delivery is a rare government decision that garners bipartisan support – 58% of independents approve of the action, as do 57% of Republicans and 51% of Democrats. Continue reading “Who cares about Saturday mail delivery?”