6 ms·

Noise pollution, disturbing the wildlife, light pollution at night, inevitable accidents.

blacksmith_tb 5y ago
All legitimate concerns, but presumably delivery trucks / lorries are guilty of all of those right now? I would be unhappy if drone delivery made things worse, but there's also the possibility it could make them better (I'd rather be hit by a drone than a truck, for example).
- burkaman 5y ago
  Yes, but I'm thinking about what happens if a single UPS truck delivering 500 packages is replaced with 500 individual drone trips. One drone is probably better than one truck, but that's not the right tradeoff to consider.
- mattmanser 5y ago
  The laws around noise pollution are surprisingly pathetic here in the UK, I imagine almost all countries are too. It's perfectly legal to deconstruct scaffolding, with power tools and chucking metal poles in the back of the van at 8am on a Sunday morning for example. Right next to multiple residential block of flats with hundreds of residents. And the number one issue if you poll residents of almost any large town is usually noise issues. If you want to see one of the big disconnects between government and the people, it's a big one. Saying it's already an issue that's under legislated doesn't mean we should allow it to get worse.
  - jfk13 5y ago
    That sounds like a failure on the part of whatever authority licensed the scaffolding work. Picking one from a quick search: Greenwich, for example, says that "Noisy work is prohibited on Sundays and bank holidays", and explicitly mentions "Erecting and dismantling of scaffolding" in its examples of "noisy work". (https://www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk/info/200205/pollution_and_noise/654/noise_from_building_works https://www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk/info/200205/pollution_and_...) Presumably other authorities may have different rules, and they may or may not be effectively enforced. But in principle, at least, it's not a free-for-all.
  - nsonha 5y ago
    My neighbor mows the lawn really early every Sunday. I don't think I can do anything about it.
  - patall 5y ago
    In Germany, they are not that pathetic. You can theoretically be fined upto 50.000€ for mowing on Sundays. The two days before Easter, even dancing is forbidden in many federal states.
- JoshTko 5y ago
  Delivery trucks aren't flying over back yards.
- gambler 5y ago
  As a reminder, 6 questions about technology outlined by Neil Postman: What is the problem to which this technology is a solution for? Whose problem is it? What new problems might be created by solving the original problem? Which people and what institutions will be most seriously harmed by this new technology? What sort of people and institutions gain special economic and political power from this new technology? What changes in language are being forced by these new technologies?
Hoasi 5y ago
> Noise pollution, disturbing the wildlife, light pollution at night, inevitable accidents. Don't forget ridiculousness. That raven knows, and we should all be thankful for birds leading the protest.
amelius 5y ago
Also: how much power do they consume? Probably more than a truck if you amortize over multiple packages, since the poor thing has to fight gravity all the time.
- kragen 5y ago
  A truck weighs three tonnes; a quadcopter weighs 3 kg. You can't amortize coffee delivery over very many packages because you have to deliver the coffee within a few minutes after it's ready; otherwise it gets cold.
  - amelius 5y ago
    You can brew coffee in the back of a truck.
    - kragen 5y ago
      Driving an entire coffee shop around to the house of whoever wants a coffee seems guaranteed to use much more energy than airlifting just the coffee itself.
    - sbierwagen 5y ago
      There was a startup called Zume whose pitch was trucks that would bake pizza while driving to the customer for the absolutely maximally fresh pie. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-13/inside-the-firings-at-softbank-s-robot-pizza-startup https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-13/inside-th... Spoilers: that's hard to do.
      - kragen 5y ago
        It works okay if you cook while parked. But coffee might be more forgiving.

All legitimate concerns, but presumably delivery trucks / lorries are guilty of all of those right now? I would be unhappy if drone delivery made things worse, but there's also the possibility it could make them better (I'd rather be hit by a drone than a truck, for example).

burkaman 5y ago
Yes, but I'm thinking about what happens if a single UPS truck delivering 500 packages is replaced with 500 individual drone trips. One drone is probably better than one truck, but that's not the right tradeoff to consider.
mattmanser 5y ago
The laws around noise pollution are surprisingly pathetic here in the UK, I imagine almost all countries are too. It's perfectly legal to deconstruct scaffolding, with power tools and chucking metal poles in the back of the van at 8am on a Sunday morning for example. Right next to multiple residential block of flats with hundreds of residents. And the number one issue if you poll residents of almost any large town is usually noise issues. If you want to see one of the big disconnects between government and the people, it's a big one. Saying it's already an issue that's under legislated doesn't mean we should allow it to get worse.
- jfk13 5y ago
  That sounds like a failure on the part of whatever authority licensed the scaffolding work. Picking one from a quick search: Greenwich, for example, says that "Noisy work is prohibited on Sundays and bank holidays", and explicitly mentions "Erecting and dismantling of scaffolding" in its examples of "noisy work". (https://www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk/info/200205/pollution_and_noise/654/noise_from_building_works https://www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk/info/200205/pollution_and_...) Presumably other authorities may have different rules, and they may or may not be effectively enforced. But in principle, at least, it's not a free-for-all.
- nsonha 5y ago
  My neighbor mows the lawn really early every Sunday. I don't think I can do anything about it.
- patall 5y ago
  In Germany, they are not that pathetic. You can theoretically be fined upto 50.000€ for mowing on Sundays. The two days before Easter, even dancing is forbidden in many federal states.
JoshTko 5y ago
Delivery trucks aren't flying over back yards.
gambler 5y ago
As a reminder, 6 questions about technology outlined by Neil Postman: What is the problem to which this technology is a solution for? Whose problem is it? What new problems might be created by solving the original problem? Which people and what institutions will be most seriously harmed by this new technology? What sort of people and institutions gain special economic and political power from this new technology? What changes in language are being forced by these new technologies?

Hoasi 5y ago

> Noise pollution, disturbing the wildlife, light pollution at night, inevitable accidents. Don't forget ridiculousness. That raven knows, and we should all be thankful for birds leading the protest.

amelius 5y ago

Also: how much power do they consume? Probably more than a truck if you amortize over multiple packages, since the poor thing has to fight gravity all the time.

kragen 5y ago
A truck weighs three tonnes; a quadcopter weighs 3 kg. You can't amortize coffee delivery over very many packages because you have to deliver the coffee within a few minutes after it's ready; otherwise it gets cold.
- amelius 5y ago
  You can brew coffee in the back of a truck.
  - kragen 5y ago
    Driving an entire coffee shop around to the house of whoever wants a coffee seems guaranteed to use much more energy than airlifting just the coffee itself.
  - sbierwagen 5y ago
    There was a startup called Zume whose pitch was trucks that would bake pizza while driving to the customer for the absolutely maximally fresh pie. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-13/inside-the-firings-at-softbank-s-robot-pizza-startup https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-13/inside-th... Spoilers: that's hard to do.
    - kragen 5y ago
      It works okay if you cook while parked. But coffee might be more forgiving.