He didn't called it "hot air and baloney" because he thinks it would never physically work. He called it that because he believes it was timed to coincide with Cyber Monday. The bureaucratic hurdles for this are too numerous to mention. It goes in the Hyperloop-from-LA-to-NYC category.

I doubt he's missed the mark since there's not many other logical reasons for Amazon to announce this possibility five years in advance.

It's Amazon.com marketing hype. Go buy something.

> I doubt he's missed the mark since there's not many other logical reasons for Amazon to announce this possibility five years in advance.

Getting public support early so they have an easier time of getting the legislation passed to make this possible.

Getting public support early so they can get people thinking/accepting of drop off locations in and around their homes and businesses.

Getting people interested in working for a forward thinking company, and therefore attracting engineers wanting to work on interesting things.

But no. It's just marketing hype.

You know what is purely hype in order to get page views? This article by Lyons.