3 ms·

Can we all allow us the freedom to fail after trying than not having tried at all?

• maweki 5y ago
  For non-food in cities there is no fundamental reason why drones should be any more efficient than ground-based delivery. Flying takes in general more energy than driving and ground-based delivery is not more dangerous or much more expensive.
  • mft_ 5y ago
    Energy could be disregarded as (with renewable sourcing) it would be essentially free in the amounts needed for drones. Drones would offer increased speed of delivery within boundaries, plus scaling without the tricky problem (for Amazon it seems!) of directly employing more humans. (Obvs humans needed behind the scenes.)
    • unionpivo 5y ago
      Energy will not be free for quite a while, if ever. And while energy for a single flight of a single drone is minimal, having tens of thousand of delivery drones, operating 24/7 (or 16 hrs a day) is another matter. Even if cost of production of energy is 0 (and it's not. even for renewable, solar panels need cleaning and occasional replacement, wind turbines need regular maintenance, etc.), there is a large cost of maintaining electric grid. In some places on earth, local solar installations, might be enough, but for most of the planet, we will still need normal grid, and probably even expand them, if we plan to migrate everything to green electricity. I don't know how much electricity you pay where you live, but for me, only around 50% of the bill is actual usage. And since other forms of energy(like gasoline and natural gas) provide significant tax income, this will eventually mean governments will raise electric taxes to compensate, when and if electricity replaces them. So I would not be surprised if cost of electricity stayed the same.