3 ms·

innovation takes time. There's no obvious reason to me that automated deliveries can't materialize in the future.

by fierro 8y ago

Animats 8y ago
Somebody needs to solve the "last 20 meters" vehicle to doorway problem.
- aezell 8y ago
  I don't know if you meant this as a joke but it's one of the funniest things I've read on this site in a long time.
  - Animats 8y ago
    It's not a joke. Self-driving vehicle stops in front of apartment building. Customer gets text message to come down and unload the thing. That's what this is. Not a competitive business model. Might work in suburbia in warm dry climates.
    - ztratar 8y ago
      "Not a competitive business model" is a stretch. You might be right, but you should have pretty high uncertainty about that claim. If driverless tech reduces the delivery cost down 10x, the average consumer might be very willing to walk out to the street. Some might even do it in the rain (umbrella, etc).
      - seankimdesign 8y ago
        Speaking from experience as an apartment dweller in California. My food delivery pet peeve is when I get a phone call from the delivery person saying that they're inside the apartment complex but are having trouble finding my unit so I should come meet them at the pool. I'm not trying to fault the driver for not locating my unit, not do I enjoy sounding like an entitled bourgeois snoot, but it definitely makes the delivery experience less-than-complete. I imagine the last 20-meter problem will be a much higher barrier for those who are experiencing mobility-related challenges, and it is indeed a real problem to be solved.
      - mortenjorck 8y ago
        Yes. This may involve slightly more effort on the urban customer’s part than something like DoorDash, but if it’s significantly cheaper (and doesn’t involve disingenuously guilting you into tipping to subsidize the rate the company pays a human delivery person), I could see city dwellers flocking to it. The biggest challenge I see is discovering and navigating to the appropriate place for the vehicle to wait for a customer to come down and pick up their order. Just thinking about my building, there’s a turnaround with a ton of non-obvious cues as to where taxis and Ubers are supposed to wait, and it’s shared with a public parking garage and a restaurant with a valet stand. An AV is pretty much guaranteed to get it wrong, and Nuro needs a way for door staff or valets to tell it where to go.
- d-sc 8y ago
  Presumably this has been solved. It’s a mailbox. Once the software infrastructure for autonomous delivery vehicles is in place, I feel that people will gladly install $100 ‘autonomous-delivery-ready-mailboxes’. We gladly spend more than that on the gas, electricity, internet, and parking infrastructure that’s in place.
  - anonymous5133 8y ago
    We are already going that route due to people stealing packages from front doors....People are buying package lock boxes.

innovation takes time. There's no obvious reason to me that automated deliveries can't materialize in the future.

by fierro 8y ago

innovation takes time. There's no obvious reason to me that automated deliveries can't materialize in the future.

Animats 8y ago

Somebody needs to solve the "last 20 meters" vehicle to doorway problem.

aezell 8y ago
I don't know if you meant this as a joke but it's one of the funniest things I've read on this site in a long time.
- Animats 8y ago
  It's not a joke. Self-driving vehicle stops in front of apartment building. Customer gets text message to come down and unload the thing. That's what this is. Not a competitive business model. Might work in suburbia in warm dry climates.
  - ztratar 8y ago
    "Not a competitive business model" is a stretch. You might be right, but you should have pretty high uncertainty about that claim. If driverless tech reduces the delivery cost down 10x, the average consumer might be very willing to walk out to the street. Some might even do it in the rain (umbrella, etc).
    - seankimdesign 8y ago
      Speaking from experience as an apartment dweller in California. My food delivery pet peeve is when I get a phone call from the delivery person saying that they're inside the apartment complex but are having trouble finding my unit so I should come meet them at the pool. I'm not trying to fault the driver for not locating my unit, not do I enjoy sounding like an entitled bourgeois snoot, but it definitely makes the delivery experience less-than-complete. I imagine the last 20-meter problem will be a much higher barrier for those who are experiencing mobility-related challenges, and it is indeed a real problem to be solved.
    - mortenjorck 8y ago
      Yes. This may involve slightly more effort on the urban customer’s part than something like DoorDash, but if it’s significantly cheaper (and doesn’t involve disingenuously guilting you into tipping to subsidize the rate the company pays a human delivery person), I could see city dwellers flocking to it. The biggest challenge I see is discovering and navigating to the appropriate place for the vehicle to wait for a customer to come down and pick up their order. Just thinking about my building, there’s a turnaround with a ton of non-obvious cues as to where taxis and Ubers are supposed to wait, and it’s shared with a public parking garage and a restaurant with a valet stand. An AV is pretty much guaranteed to get it wrong, and Nuro needs a way for door staff or valets to tell it where to go.
d-sc 8y ago
Presumably this has been solved. It’s a mailbox. Once the software infrastructure for autonomous delivery vehicles is in place, I feel that people will gladly install $100 ‘autonomous-delivery-ready-mailboxes’. We gladly spend more than that on the gas, electricity, internet, and parking infrastructure that’s in place.
- anonymous5133 8y ago
  We are already going that route due to people stealing packages from front doors....People are buying package lock boxes.