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Perhaps we could load all the packages into some sort of specialized "package bus", and the driver could drive it around town all day on an optimized route and

Perhaps we could load all the packages into some sort of specialized "package bus", and the driver could drive it around town all day on an optimized route and carry the packages to the customer's door himself. Joking aside, that does raise the idea of using a delivery truck as sort of a carrier for rechargable drones; truck drives around, packages are automatically distributed to a pool of drones who handle the last hundred yards of delivery and return to the truck to reload/recharge.

dimatura 6y ago
That's exactly the idea. Drones are relatively energy-efficient and are ill-suited for long range transport, specially if they have to haul a package. But for "last mile" delivery it might make sense.
Nasrudith 6y ago
I thought that was one of Amazon's proposed delivery drone schemes before it got a sad but sensibly justifiable veto over concerns of the air space being filled with a high volume of drones whom would constitute a real falling hazard from the base failure rate and an attractive nuisance by being small non-human "faceless" targets with goods. Technically anybody right now could just shoot a poor Amazon delivery drivers with a shotgun now to rob them but it would be murder as opposed to destruction of property. Very few would do so vs snaring or shooting a drone. It is one hell of a bizzare systemic perverse incentive - putting a human body to be at risk reduces the robbery incentive and frequency. Reminds me of one account of Italian medieval cities of merchants plastering their walls with the Virgin Mary so people wouldn't dare to blasphemously piss on her image.
- zitterbewegung 6y ago
  For this even if you automate the driving and package delivery you would still want a human to be onsite to make sure the system doesn’t fail. It would make the amount of delivery trucks smaller making shipments more efficient .
- Threeve303 6y ago
  > It is one hell of a bizzare systemic perverse incentive Not to worry... Drones are corporate property and corporations are people, therefore destroying the drone is murder. Don't agree? Take it up with these heavily armed protection drones we built for the delivery drones.
  - jstarfish 6y ago
    We already escalate the privilege of police dogs, so this isn't farfetched. Shooting a dog is punished the same as shooting its handler.
    - anewdirection 6y ago
      And yet, the handler stops biting me when I stop resisting. I love dogs, but think their time in LE are fading. Both as an affront to the rights of the people and of the dogs. The 'beast of burden' ethic is quickly becoming outdated.
bduerst 6y ago
Why even use trucks? Make a blimp mothership and keep it under 400 ft (FAA class G). You save energy by dropping drone packages down the gravity well rather than flying it up from ground-based transport.
Animats 6y ago
Mercedes-Benz built a demo where the "package bus" stops , little robots spread out, and do multiple deliveries nearby. You need dense deliveries for that to work, so it was never deployed.
lttlrck 6y ago
Mercedes Vision Van: https://youtu.be/--cfO-bnRY4 https://youtu.be/--cfO-bnRY4
bsder 6y ago
Well, I could certainly see in a city where a driver unloads a palette of vehicular drones at an office building which then distribute themselves. However, this is likely another one of those "the exceptions are the norm" problems where the exceptional cases (long packages, unusual elevators, etc.) happen so often that it's just better to keep a human in the loop.
Apofis 6y ago
If they used electric trolleys, you can even charge the drones while their in transit. This isn't actually a bad idea.
tracker1 6y ago
I've had that thought as well.. basically driver takes a truck/trailer and parks, drones swarm and deliver packages within an N mile radius and come back to the truck... driver moves to next deploy point. Of course the size/weight of some packages delivered via amazon would be an issue in terms of using a drone at all. Not sure about the energy use for flying drones... Land based drones could also work for some deliveries.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
techslave 6y ago
it would be better to catapult packages. it would be easy to code up. most packages can survive it. not having to stop the truck would be a huge carbon saver, would it not?

dimatura 6y ago

That's exactly the idea. Drones are relatively energy-efficient and are ill-suited for long range transport, specially if they have to haul a package. But for "last mile" delivery it might make sense.

Nasrudith 6y ago

I thought that was one of Amazon's proposed delivery drone schemes before it got a sad but sensibly justifiable veto over concerns of the air space being filled with a high volume of drones whom would constitute a real falling hazard from the base failure rate and an attractive nuisance by being small non-human "faceless" targets with goods. Technically anybody right now could just shoot a poor Amazon delivery drivers with a shotgun now to rob them but it would be murder as opposed to destruction of property. Very few would do so vs snaring or shooting a drone. It is one hell of a bizzare systemic perverse incentive - putting a human body to be at risk reduces the robbery incentive and frequency. Reminds me of one account of Italian medieval cities of merchants plastering their walls with the Virgin Mary so people wouldn't dare to blasphemously piss on her image.

zitterbewegung 6y ago
For this even if you automate the driving and package delivery you would still want a human to be onsite to make sure the system doesn’t fail. It would make the amount of delivery trucks smaller making shipments more efficient .
Threeve303 6y ago
> It is one hell of a bizzare systemic perverse incentive Not to worry... Drones are corporate property and corporations are people, therefore destroying the drone is murder. Don't agree? Take it up with these heavily armed protection drones we built for the delivery drones.
- jstarfish 6y ago
  We already escalate the privilege of police dogs, so this isn't farfetched. Shooting a dog is punished the same as shooting its handler.
  - anewdirection 6y ago
    And yet, the handler stops biting me when I stop resisting. I love dogs, but think their time in LE are fading. Both as an affront to the rights of the people and of the dogs. The 'beast of burden' ethic is quickly becoming outdated.

bduerst 6y ago

Why even use trucks? Make a blimp mothership and keep it under 400 ft (FAA class G). You save energy by dropping drone packages down the gravity well rather than flying it up from ground-based transport.

Animats 6y ago

Mercedes-Benz built a demo where the "package bus" stops , little robots spread out, and do multiple deliveries nearby. You need dense deliveries for that to work, so it was never deployed.

lttlrck 6y ago

Mercedes Vision Van: https://youtu.be/--cfO-bnRY4 https://youtu.be/--cfO-bnRY4

bsder 6y ago

Well, I could certainly see in a city where a driver unloads a palette of vehicular drones at an office building which then distribute themselves. However, this is likely another one of those "the exceptions are the norm" problems where the exceptional cases (long packages, unusual elevators, etc.) happen so often that it's just better to keep a human in the loop.

Apofis 6y ago

If they used electric trolleys, you can even charge the drones while their in transit. This isn't actually a bad idea.

tracker1 6y ago

I've had that thought as well.. basically driver takes a truck/trailer and parks, drones swarm and deliver packages within an N mile radius and come back to the truck... driver moves to next deploy point. Of course the size/weight of some packages delivered via amazon would be an issue in terms of using a drone at all. Not sure about the energy use for flying drones... Land based drones could also work for some deliveries.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

techslave 6y ago

it would be better to catapult packages. it would be easy to code up. most packages can survive it. not having to stop the truck would be a huge carbon saver, would it not?