The drone will deliver right to your door so soon there will never be a reason to leave the house ever again:
"Amazon’s Drone Delivery Fleet Hits Milestone With FAA Clearance" by Alan Levin, Bloomberg News | August 31, 2020
Retail behemoth Amazon.com Inc. took a big leap toward delivering goods from the sky by becoming one of only a handful of companies certified by the U.S. government to operate as a drone airline.
The Federal Aviation Administration designated Amazon Prime Air an “air carrier,” the company said Monday. That allows Amazon to begin its first commercial deliveries in the U.S. under a trial program, using the high-tech devices it unveiled for that purpose last year.
Amazon and its competitors must still clear some imposing regulatory and technical hurdles before small packages holding the likes of cat food or toothpaste can routinely be dropped at people’s homes, but the action shows that they’ve convinced the government they’re ready to operate in the highly regulated aviation sector.
The FAA confirmed it had granted the approval, saying in a statement that it’s trying to support innovation in the expanding drone arena while ensuring that the devices operate safely.
Amazon joins Wing, the Alphabet Inc. subsidiary, and United Parcel Service Inc. as companies that have gotten FAA approval to operate under the federal regulations governing charter operators and small airlines.
Amazon will begin its own delivery tests, it said, declining to say where and when they would occur. It operates several test sites in the U.S. Northwest and in the nearby Vancouver area. It previously performed experimental deliveries in the U.K.
To receive FAA certification, the company had to document everything from pilot-training programs to drug testing. It also demonstrated its operations for FAA inspectors in recent days.
The approvals have at times challenged the FAA because its regulations were designed for aircraft with humans aboard, not unoccupied drones.
The approval comes as Amazon’s business has surged during the Covid-19 pandemic as consumers turn away from traditional stores -- some of which were ordered closed -- in favor of online purchases.
Amazon and other companies hoping to revolutionize the retail world with drones have made significant strides in recent years. They’ve invented new devices and shown, at least on a limited scale, that they’re capable of flying relatively long distances and carrying the payloads necessary for packages, but routine deliveries are most likely still years off.
Not exactly to kind of revolution BLM had in mind, is it?
Or is it, what with all that corporate loot pouring in?!!
Why are they not protesting that?
The FAA is preparing to finalize a set of regulations by the end of this year that will serve as a framework to expand drone flights over crowds, a building block necessary for deliveries. That’s just the first step, however. For drones to operate efficiently, they must be able to fly pre-programmed routes without human pilots watching their every move.....
Amazon’s MK27 drone has a hexagon-shaped frame and takes off and lands like a helicopter, and soon AI will run everything.
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Related:
"Lord & Taylor, one of the country’s oldest department store chains, is going out of business after filing for bankruptcy protection last month. Lord & Taylor will permanently close its remaining 38 stores and shut down its website, the company said. It is holding going-out-of-business sales in stores and online....."
Last one to leave, please turn out the lights.
You can call for a ride and pick up some food on the way home:
"Mask slackers will now have to provide photographic proof they’re wearing a face covering before boarding an Uber. The San Francisco-based company unveiled a new policy Tuesday stipulating that if a driver reports to Uber that a rider wasn’t wearing a mask, the rider will have to provide Uber with a selfie with one strapped on the next time they summon a car on the world’s largest ride-hailing service. The mask verification rule expands upon a similar requirement that Uber imposed on its drivers in May to help reassure passengers worried about being exposed to the novel coronavirus that has upended society. Now, Uber believes it’s time to help make its drivers feel safer, too....."
Their recent TV ad with everyone masked up left me walking to the McDonald’s under the billboard.
Going to empty out the Bo$ton Market:
"‘It’s never been this bad’: One-fourth of Faneuil Hall businesses haven’t reopened due to the COVID-19 pandemic; The vacancies are adding up quickly as tenants seek help from City Hall and the marketplace’s operator" by Jon Chesto Globe Staff, August 31, 2020
Working in the Quincy Market food court is the only job George Maherakis has ever known, but he’s never known anything quite like this.
The general manager of Fisherman’s Net gets more worried by the day as he watches an unprecedented number of vacancies pile up around him at Faneuil Hall Marketplace. About 20 tenants have closed for good or have not reopened since the pandemic began, representing nearly one-fourth of the property’s stores and restaurants. The latest, and perhaps most notable: The Cheers replica bar poured its final drink on Sunday.
Maherakis, who started working at the marketplace as a teen in the 1990s, said he might have to sell his Woburn home if he can’t get another mortgage deferral from his bank. The seafood stand that he runs with his father now rings up $400 to $600 in sales on a typical good day, but some days, he puts only about $200 in the cash register. That’s less than some dinner checks at the city’s fancier seafood places.
“It’s scary,” Maherakis said. “We’re working for free, to pay for our employees and our food, just to stay open.”
Sales were down 85 to 90 percent at Fisherman’s Net and numerous other mom-and-pop vendors at the marketplace, tenants say, compared to July and August of last year. Merchants blame the COVID-19 pandemic and its ripple effects: Fewer tourists swing by now, though some days are busy. The city’s rules block the jugglers, buskers, and hustlers who used to give the marketplace’s cobblestones some life, and don’t look for help from the office towers next door — they’re still empty, or close to it.
Ask merchants about the closures, though, and they blame something else, as well: their landlord, Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp.
The New York company, they say, hasn’t adequately funded marketplace promotions and has let the cleaning and other upkeep slide. After some pressure from city officials, Ashkenazy agreed to defer rents until 2021 for the April-June period, when most of the complex was closed. That’s simply not enough for the vendors, who say they need forgiveness for those months they couldn’t open, and a new rent structure that reflects the staggering drop in foot traffic.
They worry that Ashkenazy overpaid for the marketplace’s long-term lease, in a $140 million deal about nine years ago, and now they could end up paying the price.
Sorting out the dispute that Faneuil Hall Marketplace is becoming poses a significant challenge for Mayor Martin J. Walsh and his administration.....
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Maybe an appeal to Trump would help (looks like CDC communi$m to me) and the landlord could have a change of heart. Then it would be cheers all around!
Related:
"The nasty breakup between heavyweight builder John Fish and veteran developer Stephen Weiner just got nastier. Weiner has laid low since Fish filed a lawsuit in October that accused his former partner on a Boylston Street luxury condo project of backing out at the last minute, costing Fish tens of millions of dollars, but after a Suffolk Superior Court judge last month allowed Fish to move forward with parts of his case, Weiner and his son Adam, who also worked on the deal, have fired back with a 139-page rebuttal of the construction magnate’s claims....."
It's no longer business as usual in Bo$ton.
Time to be the First to get some meat on the grill for Labor Day, as it is Smart to be in it for the long haul.
