>>1168578>>1168653It's not a matter of time, it's a matter of physics. The #1 problem for drones is that their payload is very small compared to what most people buy and the #2 problem is the awful range. Better batteries won't solve this, what's needed are things like onboard fusion reactors or beamed power (say, from an airship or a large pole) in order to get the power:weight ratio and range up to an economical level.
But even if that happens, any delivery service would quickly discover that having to dispatch 100+ drones is a huge pain in the ass and uneconomical compared to one large drone. At this point we'd now have UAV helicopters dumping packages off (say by tehter), an activity most communities already ban due to noise if travel is not already inhibited by tall structures, trees or power lines.
On the flip side of this, UPS (or anyone else) could just invent a way for trucks to dump off packages without the driver having to get up. Or better yet just have the customer come to the package in a storage locker or branch office, negating the need for any of this in the first place (and is by far the cheapest option as a result).
