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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

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.
    - semi-extrinsic 9y ago
      Not to mention in most places, highways (the places where cars make the most noise) are far away or acoustically shielded from where there are people.
- jacquesm 9y ago
  No, they won't be much quieter. The noise is a function of the shape of the propellors, their diameter and the speed of the air flowing through them. The typical drone blade has to run at 7K rpm in order to just hover the drone, 12K and up to maneuver. That's very much in the audible range and the speed with which the air flows through and the fact that the air flows downwards through them pretty much guarantees a very loud presence. A couple of these at all times and you'll be ready to start target practice.
  - mrfusion 9y ago
    We should design them to have owl like wings. Owls fly very quietly.
    - jacquesm 9y ago
      You should definitely watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVo3wEkyci4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVo3wEkyci4 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnR8fDW3Ilo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnR8fDW3Ilo Also, while birds are really good at using their wings to glide and provide propulsion flapping designs that need to lift much more than their own weight have so far not worked very well. So I don't really see them as viable for packages.
      - mrfusion 9y ago
        Interesting. Seems like some birds can lift a lot of weight though like a hawk carrying a rabbit.
        jacquesm 9y ago
        Yes, but for a given weight in flight so far nature seems to be doing much better than batteries or fuel when it comes to carrying capacity. That's not to say that will not change, but for now biology has the edge, especially when you compound the problem such as limit the noise emitted.
saosebastiao 9y ago
It would replace a single vehicle with dozens, if not hundreds of drones, all traveling longer distances than that single vehicle.
- scrumbledober 9y ago
  If we take the example of a delivery truck full of many packages, it seems to me that each drone would travel a shorter distance to their single destination than the truck that had many destinations.
  - vkou 9y ago
    When a delivery truck stops in front of my apartment building, it delivers a dozen packages. A drone would have to make a dozen trips to do this. I have to say, the noise generated by the UPS truck stopping-and-going on my street is... Insignificant compared to even a single consumer drone buzzing overhead.
goldfeld 9y ago
So progress is hell on earth and technocrats are cheering it up?
irhd 9y ago
> What is this going to sound like when cities have hundreds of whining cars driving around? Car noise is a big issue. We had to start designing cities around cars.

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.
  - semi-extrinsic 9y ago
    Not to mention in most places, highways (the places where cars make the most noise) are far away or acoustically shielded from where there are people.
jacquesm 9y ago
No, they won't be much quieter. The noise is a function of the shape of the propellors, their diameter and the speed of the air flowing through them. The typical drone blade has to run at 7K rpm in order to just hover the drone, 12K and up to maneuver. That's very much in the audible range and the speed with which the air flows through and the fact that the air flows downwards through them pretty much guarantees a very loud presence. A couple of these at all times and you'll be ready to start target practice.
- mrfusion 9y ago
  We should design them to have owl like wings. Owls fly very quietly.
  - jacquesm 9y ago
    You should definitely watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVo3wEkyci4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVo3wEkyci4 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnR8fDW3Ilo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnR8fDW3Ilo Also, while birds are really good at using their wings to glide and provide propulsion flapping designs that need to lift much more than their own weight have so far not worked very well. So I don't really see them as viable for packages.
    - mrfusion 9y ago
      Interesting. Seems like some birds can lift a lot of weight though like a hawk carrying a rabbit.
      - jacquesm 9y ago
        Yes, but for a given weight in flight so far nature seems to be doing much better than batteries or fuel when it comes to carrying capacity. That's not to say that will not change, but for now biology has the edge, especially when you compound the problem such as limit the noise emitted.

saosebastiao 9y ago

It would replace a single vehicle with dozens, if not hundreds of drones, all traveling longer distances than that single vehicle.

scrumbledober 9y ago
If we take the example of a delivery truck full of many packages, it seems to me that each drone would travel a shorter distance to their single destination than the truck that had many destinations.
- vkou 9y ago
  When a delivery truck stops in front of my apartment building, it delivers a dozen packages. A drone would have to make a dozen trips to do this. I have to say, the noise generated by the UPS truck stopping-and-going on my street is... Insignificant compared to even a single consumer drone buzzing overhead.

goldfeld 9y ago

So progress is hell on earth and technocrats are cheering it up?

irhd 9y ago

> What is this going to sound like when cities have hundreds of whining cars driving around? Car noise is a big issue. We had to start designing cities around cars.