8 ms·

Mercedes-Benz conducting the biggest test using drones to ship everyday items

53 points by flinner 9y ago

account0099099 9y ago
What is this going to sound like when cities have hundreds of whining drones flying around? Are we just going to have to get used to the noise pollution from the drones so people can get their coffee delivered faster?
- H1Supreme 9y ago
  Additionally, how will the drones be secured? A baseball could knock these things out of the air. It's not like with a delivery person where there's a lot of risk involved trying to take a package.
  - tachyonbeam 9y ago
    A drone large enough to ship a package will probably not be taken down by a baseball. It's also going to be difficult to throw a baseball at a moving drone. You'd also have to know when the drone is going to come by, because most of the time, they would be flying high, except when near landing. Finally, security cameras.
    - Shivetya 9y ago
      well the concern I am curious about how they address it is, how will they route these drones? How high up do they need to be when crossing private property before they are not trespassing. If any have cameras attached how do we verify they only record where appropriate? if routing down existing roadways how do they fare in areas with large numbers of over head wires? my personal concerns from above are trespass and privacy. besides someone should easily be able to come up with a means to track them and nab some packages, with drones if there is enough money in it.
      - tachyonbeam 9y ago
        Most drones would likely be carrying low-value items. The risk would probably not be worth it. Each time you try to nab a drone, you are exposing yourself to the risk of being arrested and prosecuted. If security is a huge concern, keep shipping high-value items by people. Program the drones to fly in unpredictable patterns, etc.
        jacquesm 9y ago
        > The risk would probably not be worth it. There are the parts the drone is made out of. A drone capable of lifting a package would be worth a pretty penny in parts.
    - jacquesm 9y ago
      A drone large enough to ship a package will kill you when it falls down for whatever reason. I don't see this whole concept working simply due to (re)liability.
- xenihn 9y ago
  I had one fly low near my top-floor unit recently and it was way louder than I ever expected it to be.
- wpietri 9y ago
  We seem pretty used to the noise of trucks, which are the loudest thing in my neighborhood.
- simplyinfinity 9y ago
  What is this going to sound like when cities have hundreds of whining cars driving around? Are we just going to have to get used to the noise pollution from the cars so people can get their coffee delivered faster? ------- This actually might lower the delivery times and delivery cars on the road which is a good thing! Less traffic, less air pollution, faster delivery times, less jobs (not a good thing tho).
  - mikeash 9y ago
    It's true that we already deal with annoying vehicular noise, but that's hardly an argument in favor of repeating the same mistakes. I'm not convinced it would be anything like a net gain. I'm not a fan of car noise, but a delivery truck carrying hundreds of packages makes less noise than a drone too small to even carry one of them. Hopefully it's possible to make these things much quieter....
    - d0lph 9y ago
      True, but imagine if these drones handled food/grocery/retail delivery, the amount of cars on the road would drop immensely. As long as the tradeoff is 1 car -> 1 drone.
      - graeme 9y ago
        You’re assuming nothing else would fill the gap left. It’s not a static system.
      - mikeash 9y ago
        Trading off one car for one drone would result in a massive increase in noise. To be a win, you'd need each drone to replace hundreds or thousands of cars, and right now the equation is the other way around. Cars are getting quieter all the time, too. Tire noise already dominates for most vehicles at city speeds, and EVs improve the picture even further. Diesel trucks are often pretty noise, but they're mild compared to a drone, and electric trucks will drastically cut down on noise.
- oh_sigh 9y ago
  100 years ago, you would have said "What is this going to sound like when cities have hundreds of whining cars driving around? Are we just going to have to get used to the noise pollution from the cars so people can get their crackerboxes delivered faster?"
  - icebraining 9y ago
    And they would have been right, which is why cities are now (finally) trying to curb that plague. I suggest a free-market approach: let these companies purchase the noise rights of each affected inhabitant. Then Coase can decide if having a crackerboxer two hours sooner is worth the cost.
    - oh_sigh 9y ago
      Cities aren't cracking down on cars because of noise, they are cracking down because they are a very poor use of limited space. I'm curious if you think people who are,say, proselytizing on the sidewalk should need to buy noise rights from people who can hear them as well?
- njarboe 9y ago
  Automatic pilot for a flying drone from A to B is much easier than one that moves on streets or sidewalks, but I hope we don't let these flying drones cover our cities with noise. If automatic cars work out, maybe a system of quiet, electric trucks that stop at your house/apartment and then a flying drone from truck to the front/back porch (or open widow? That would be cool for condos/apts) would not add much more noise to the urban environment.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
FLUX-YOU 9y ago
Who had the bright idea to put a drone video up top that has nothing to do with Mercedes? The company in the video isn't even mentioned in the article. Stay weird, Bloomberg.
theDoug 9y ago
Biggest seems to be a superlative with no basis. Perhaps its biggest test?
fenwick67 9y ago
All this drone delivery stuff is theatre until they start building obstacle detection and avoidance into them. Yes, drones can take off from point A, then fly up, over to point B, and land. We already knew this.
- oh_sigh 9y ago
  Even modern consumer drones have obstacle detection and avoidance built in
- CamelCaseName 9y ago
  You can buy $300 drones with obstacle detection / avoidance. Hell, I even recall a service on reddit where someone let you fly his drone around New Zealand and it was completely unmonitored because the drone would not let you crash or hit anything.
Animats 9y ago
That's the reverse of Mercedes' previous robot delivery scheme. They did a test with Starship Technologies delivery robots, where a van was filled up with the robots, it went somewhere, and the robots fanned out to deliver things. That would make sense for dense areas like apartment buildings and offices, once you get doors and elevators to cooperate. This new test delivers stuff by drone from a distribution center to the vans, which then make local deliveries with humans. That seems backwards. The drones are doing the heavy lifting, something trucks do very well.
PeachPlum 9y ago
Last mile is best served on foot, not by vehicle.
totally 9y ago
What's the failure mode for quadcopters, can these land safely with loss of one motor? Definition of "safely" would ideally consider human casualties.
- semi-extrinsic 9y ago
  Well, this happened a couple of years ago in a World Cup skiing event. https://youtu.be/xeviAWB0i4Y https://youtu.be/xeviAWB0i4Y
  - totally 9y ago
    That's an incredible link, thanks for that. That someone would be skiing, whatever, 100 miles per hour and might then die because of a falling electronic lawnmower really highlights seen vs unseen risks.
  - jacquesm 9y ago
    Shades of The Truman Show. That was bloody close.
goldfeld 9y ago
People wonder why the bees are gone or why it's gonna be a total wasteland for life in no time.
michrassena 9y ago
I can imagine drone delivery's an effective solution to the last mile problem for automated delivery? Have a self-driving truck navigate through a neighborhood, the drone takes off with the package and delivers it to the doorstep and returns to the truck. The truck can continue driving around as drones rejoin it down the road. Now we have both pieces of the equation: how to get to the house without paying a driver, and how to get to the porch without paying someone to walk and carry.
- QAPereo 9y ago
  How many jobs would that “repurpose” in delivery if you add a automated truck? Energy and materials to build and maintain drone fleets, noise, all seem like issues, since this is added on to the existing truck.
  - michrassena 9y ago
    You make a good point. Would those steps actually lead to cost savings? Driving a truck and delivering packages requires less specialized skills than maintaining the fleet. How do delivery companies handle maintenance on their human-driven trucks? It is contracted out? If the company can run three trucks per staff member vs. one per truck, wouldn't the savings be worth it? Are they going to pay this new staff member 3 times as much as a driver?

53 points by flinner 9y ago

What is this going to sound like when cities have hundreds of whining drones flying around? Are we just going to have to get used to the noise pollution from the drones so people can get their coffee delivered faster?

H1Supreme 9y ago
Additionally, how will the drones be secured? A baseball could knock these things out of the air. It's not like with a delivery person where there's a lot of risk involved trying to take a package.
- tachyonbeam 9y ago
  A drone large enough to ship a package will probably not be taken down by a baseball. It's also going to be difficult to throw a baseball at a moving drone. You'd also have to know when the drone is going to come by, because most of the time, they would be flying high, except when near landing. Finally, security cameras.
  - Shivetya 9y ago
    well the concern I am curious about how they address it is, how will they route these drones? How high up do they need to be when crossing private property before they are not trespassing. If any have cameras attached how do we verify they only record where appropriate? if routing down existing roadways how do they fare in areas with large numbers of over head wires? my personal concerns from above are trespass and privacy. besides someone should easily be able to come up with a means to track them and nab some packages, with drones if there is enough money in it.
    - tachyonbeam 9y ago
      Most drones would likely be carrying low-value items. The risk would probably not be worth it. Each time you try to nab a drone, you are exposing yourself to the risk of being arrested and prosecuted. If security is a huge concern, keep shipping high-value items by people. Program the drones to fly in unpredictable patterns, etc.
      - jacquesm 9y ago
        > The risk would probably not be worth it. There are the parts the drone is made out of. A drone capable of lifting a package would be worth a pretty penny in parts.
  - jacquesm 9y ago
    A drone large enough to ship a package will kill you when it falls down for whatever reason. I don't see this whole concept working simply due to (re)liability.
xenihn 9y ago
I had one fly low near my top-floor unit recently and it was way louder than I ever expected it to be.
wpietri 9y ago
We seem pretty used to the noise of trucks, which are the loudest thing in my neighborhood.
simplyinfinity 9y ago
What is this going to sound like when cities have hundreds of whining cars driving around? Are we just going to have to get used to the noise pollution from the cars so people can get their coffee delivered faster? ------- This actually might lower the delivery times and delivery cars on the road which is a good thing! Less traffic, less air pollution, faster delivery times, less jobs (not a good thing tho).
- mikeash 9y ago
  It's true that we already deal with annoying vehicular noise, but that's hardly an argument in favor of repeating the same mistakes. I'm not convinced it would be anything like a net gain. I'm not a fan of car noise, but a delivery truck carrying hundreds of packages makes less noise than a drone too small to even carry one of them. Hopefully it's possible to make these things much quieter....
  - d0lph 9y ago
    True, but imagine if these drones handled food/grocery/retail delivery, the amount of cars on the road would drop immensely. As long as the tradeoff is 1 car -> 1 drone.
    - graeme 9y ago
      You’re assuming nothing else would fill the gap left. It’s not a static system.
    - mikeash 9y ago
      Trading off one car for one drone would result in a massive increase in noise. To be a win, you'd need each drone to replace hundreds or thousands of cars, and right now the equation is the other way around. Cars are getting quieter all the time, too. Tire noise already dominates for most vehicles at city speeds, and EVs improve the picture even further. Diesel trucks are often pretty noise, but they're mild compared to a drone, and electric trucks will drastically cut down on noise.
oh_sigh 9y ago
100 years ago, you would have said "What is this going to sound like when cities have hundreds of whining cars driving around? Are we just going to have to get used to the noise pollution from the cars so people can get their crackerboxes delivered faster?"
- icebraining 9y ago
  And they would have been right, which is why cities are now (finally) trying to curb that plague. I suggest a free-market approach: let these companies purchase the noise rights of each affected inhabitant. Then Coase can decide if having a crackerboxer two hours sooner is worth the cost.
  - oh_sigh 9y ago
    Cities aren't cracking down on cars because of noise, they are cracking down because they are a very poor use of limited space. I'm curious if you think people who are,say, proselytizing on the sidewalk should need to buy noise rights from people who can hear them as well?
njarboe 9y ago
Automatic pilot for a flying drone from A to B is much easier than one that moves on streets or sidewalks, but I hope we don't let these flying drones cover our cities with noise. If automatic cars work out, maybe a system of quiet, electric trucks that stop at your house/apartment and then a flying drone from truck to the front/back porch (or open widow? That would be cool for condos/apts) would not add much more noise to the urban environment.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

FLUX-YOU 9y ago

Who had the bright idea to put a drone video up top that has nothing to do with Mercedes? The company in the video isn't even mentioned in the article. Stay weird, Bloomberg.

theDoug 9y ago

Biggest seems to be a superlative with no basis. Perhaps its biggest test?

fenwick67 9y ago

All this drone delivery stuff is theatre until they start building obstacle detection and avoidance into them. Yes, drones can take off from point A, then fly up, over to point B, and land. We already knew this.

oh_sigh 9y ago
Even modern consumer drones have obstacle detection and avoidance built in
CamelCaseName 9y ago
You can buy $300 drones with obstacle detection / avoidance. Hell, I even recall a service on reddit where someone let you fly his drone around New Zealand and it was completely unmonitored because the drone would not let you crash or hit anything.

Animats 9y ago

That's the reverse of Mercedes' previous robot delivery scheme. They did a test with Starship Technologies delivery robots, where a van was filled up with the robots, it went somewhere, and the robots fanned out to deliver things. That would make sense for dense areas like apartment buildings and offices, once you get doors and elevators to cooperate. This new test delivers stuff by drone from a distribution center to the vans, which then make local deliveries with humans. That seems backwards. The drones are doing the heavy lifting, something trucks do very well.

PeachPlum 9y ago

Last mile is best served on foot, not by vehicle.

totally 9y ago

What's the failure mode for quadcopters, can these land safely with loss of one motor? Definition of "safely" would ideally consider human casualties.

semi-extrinsic 9y ago
Well, this happened a couple of years ago in a World Cup skiing event. https://youtu.be/xeviAWB0i4Y https://youtu.be/xeviAWB0i4Y
- totally 9y ago
  That's an incredible link, thanks for that. That someone would be skiing, whatever, 100 miles per hour and might then die because of a falling electronic lawnmower really highlights seen vs unseen risks.
- jacquesm 9y ago
  Shades of The Truman Show. That was bloody close.

goldfeld 9y ago

People wonder why the bees are gone or why it's gonna be a total wasteland for life in no time.

michrassena 9y ago

I can imagine drone delivery's an effective solution to the last mile problem for automated delivery? Have a self-driving truck navigate through a neighborhood, the drone takes off with the package and delivers it to the doorstep and returns to the truck. The truck can continue driving around as drones rejoin it down the road. Now we have both pieces of the equation: how to get to the house without paying a driver, and how to get to the porch without paying someone to walk and carry.

QAPereo 9y ago
How many jobs would that “repurpose” in delivery if you add a automated truck? Energy and materials to build and maintain drone fleets, noise, all seem like issues, since this is added on to the existing truck.
- michrassena 9y ago
  You make a good point. Would those steps actually lead to cost savings? Driving a truck and delivering packages requires less specialized skills than maintaining the fleet. How do delivery companies handle maintenance on their human-driven trucks? It is contracted out? If the company can run three trucks per staff member vs. one per truck, wouldn't the savings be worth it? Are they going to pay this new staff member 3 times as much as a driver?