Good points - in fact when delivery drones are a thing, there will probably be drone ports available at Lowes and Home Depot. A drone mailbox - whatever that is.
A landing pad with a chute so things don’t pile up - plus an app to register the GPS coordinates with Amazon, FedEx, etc. that you can put on your back porch or hanging out a second floor window for better security
Maybe, but other apartments/condos have the benefit of internal lobbies and mail drop areas allowing multiple packages to be delivered in one spot. They may not stop your neighbor down the hall from absconding with your package, but they’ll stop anyone from wandering in off the street. Most balconies are quite exposed to the weather too, so lightweight bubble packaging could very well just blow away, or something that’s not waterproof gets soaked by an afternoon thunderstorm. I bet Amazon will need to provide detailed instructions about proper drop areas so people don’t choose an inappropriate ones, including ones where the cat or dog likes to hang out.
@md-2000’s idea is quite compelling, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see something like that implemented. Running a drone with one package from a warehouse to the customer results in a ton of deadheading, which wastes time and battery charge. Another benefit to the slow-roaming delivery truck as a miniature aircraft carrier is that the drone(s) can recharge while docked and loading up the next package or waiting between delivery dispatches. I’d expect to see multiple drones per vehicle, though probably something more the size of a UPS box truck rather than the Amazon sprinter vans. Even if the driver has to pull over somewhere to load up the drones manually, that’s still a lot less work than pulling into every driveway and walking up to the door.
Two Words : Hunting Slingshot.
Yes, but combine those with smart parachutes - a few cents for a small chip that controls a parachute and pops it out the second before the package would hit the picture window, thus safely landing it on the porch. Then releases the strings on the biodegradable parachute so the package doesn’t blow away.
Automatic rebate for mailing the parachute control unit back to Amazon.
If they had parachute landings, I’d be ordering stuff just to watch.