I am talking about actual long distance commercial load carrying drones. Outside of military attack and surveillance drones, which are piloted, the commercial drone world is largely quad rotor style. The automated delivery drone that amazon tried to use was this type, for example.
Outside of military attack and surveillance drones, which are piloted
Not 'which are piloted'. Which 'can be' piloted. They spend the majority of their time flying autonomously. The remote human pilot is there only for specific tasks.
The reason Amazon trialed a quad copter for delivery is because a quad copter doesn't need a fucking runway to land. A fixed wing aircraft can't land on your doorstep, remember?
If Fed Ex or someone decides tomorrow that they want fully autonomous cargo planes, it will not be technically difficult to achieve. Only the regulation and legal red tape will hinder it.
I am talking about actual long distance commercial load carrying drones. Outside of military attack and surveillance drones, which are piloted, the commercial drone world is largely quad rotor style. The automated delivery drone that amazon tried to use was this type, for example.
Not 'which are piloted'. Which 'can be' piloted. They spend the majority of their time flying autonomously. The remote human pilot is there only for specific tasks.
The reason Amazon trialed a quad copter for delivery is because a quad copter doesn't need a fucking runway to land. A fixed wing aircraft can't land on your doorstep, remember?
If Fed Ex or someone decides tomorrow that they want fully autonomous cargo planes, it will not be technically difficult to achieve. Only the regulation and legal red tape will hinder it.