Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Drones)
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Innovation Diffusion
Looking at the diffusion of innovation theory developed by E.M. Rogers, there are five categories of innovation
adapters who are innovators, early adapters, early majority, late majority and finally the laggards:
It can be assumed that logistics drones have reached the early adopters. Companies such as Amazon, Google, Facebook, and DHL are the innovators as they are taking a risk, building prototypes and investing financial and human resources to produce the first operationalized drones. One of the early adapters is a luxury hotel in California who uses drones to deliver Champagne to its VIP customers:
Adapters usually go through several stages before accepting the innovation. These stages are need awareness, decision to adapt or reject, testing the innovation and if that was successful then the adapter will continue to use it. Also there are certain factors that influence this adaption process, for example, the advantage that an innovation have on current products or services and the compatibility of the innovation with the adapter’s values and experiences.
Commercial drones promises to provide faster and more efficient deliveries and it will be a breakthrough in the concept of one-day delivery however popular opinion of drones will hinder its acceptance in the public eyes.
Drones are associated with war and they generally generate a negative reaction globally especially with the increase dependence of military on drone use. Also drones have been pictured negatively in Hollywood movies especially since fiction movies that prophesize the rise of the machines. For example, the Matrix series that depicted a world controlled by artificial intelligence and where humans are used as batteries.
Also there are many movies that criticize the use of military drone, for example, a 2014 movie RoboCop features a military drone that is deployed in a Middle Eastern country and kills an innocent boy:
The reaction of the public on drones performing commercial and public missions will be a big challenge for companies such as Amazon and Google and strategies to raise awareness and change public perception will need to be developed and their impact is not expected not be immediate, as it is the case with social changes.