3 ms·

Some engineers spent years of their careers studying this problem. How long did it take you to reach the conclusion that it is not viable?

by Ripster 16y ago

ceejayoz 16y ago
People have spent years studying all sorts of things that are impractical to implement in the real world.
- Retric 16y ago
  There have been small scale versions of this used in major cities in the past. The primary limitation has been package routing, but that should be a reasonably simple problem now days. Realistically outside major city’s or industrial areas, building tunnels is unlikely to be cost effective. However, in a major metropolitan area it may be cost effective depending on what rates you can charge. PS: Same day currier companies already use the subway system; they have a "mole" that stays in the subway and hands packages to curriers at each station.
  - chopsueyar 16y ago
    The tunnels were then used to flood the basements of unsuspecting businesses. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tunnel_Company http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tunnel_Company
    - sorbus 16y ago
      Your wording is somewhat misleading, as the flooding was entirely accidental in all of the incidents mentioned.
      - chopsueyar 16y ago
        I apologize for making you read the wikipedia article. ;)
radu_floricica 16y ago
15 minutes? :) Joking, joking I used to think this is a great idea too, and got all enthusiastic about it. Somehow I changed my mind, no idea why... maybe trying to think about it being cost effective? I'm not completely outside the problem either: a few years ago a co-founded a small courier company, so I did spend some time thinking about how to best move stuff in a big city. Right now I'd say the right way to go about things is more computing power. A "swarm" of couriers can probably be efficient and cost effective enough. The real break will come when we can have cars that drive themselves, so you don't even have to pay a full time human to move packages around. But digging holes? In the few instances where you can actually do it, they're great. It's just that I really doubt it's at all scalable.

Some engineers spent years of their careers studying this problem. How long did it take you to reach the conclusion that it is not viable?

by Ripster 16y ago

Some engineers spent years of their careers studying this problem. How long did it take you to reach the conclusion that it is not viable?

ceejayoz 16y ago

People have spent years studying all sorts of things that are impractical to implement in the real world.

Retric 16y ago
There have been small scale versions of this used in major cities in the past. The primary limitation has been package routing, but that should be a reasonably simple problem now days. Realistically outside major city’s or industrial areas, building tunnels is unlikely to be cost effective. However, in a major metropolitan area it may be cost effective depending on what rates you can charge. PS: Same day currier companies already use the subway system; they have a "mole" that stays in the subway and hands packages to curriers at each station.
- chopsueyar 16y ago
  The tunnels were then used to flood the basements of unsuspecting businesses. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tunnel_Company http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tunnel_Company
  - sorbus 16y ago
    Your wording is somewhat misleading, as the flooding was entirely accidental in all of the incidents mentioned.
    - chopsueyar 16y ago
      I apologize for making you read the wikipedia article. ;)

radu_floricica 16y ago

15 minutes? :) Joking, joking I used to think this is a great idea too, and got all enthusiastic about it. Somehow I changed my mind, no idea why... maybe trying to think about it being cost effective? I'm not completely outside the problem either: a few years ago a co-founded a small courier company, so I did spend some time thinking about how to best move stuff in a big city. Right now I'd say the right way to go about things is more computing power. A "swarm" of couriers can probably be efficient and cost effective enough. The real break will come when we can have cars that drive themselves, so you don't even have to pay a full time human to move packages around. But digging holes? In the few instances where you can actually do it, they're great. It's just that I really doubt it's at all scalable.