4 ms·
Ultimately you can NOT "magically" negate "Last Mile Costs" in cities and towns where the Last Mile path distance is enormous. Did my MBA thesis on this subjec
by xyzzy21 5y ago
Ultimately you can NOT "magically" negate "Last Mile Costs" in cities and towns where the Last Mile path distance is enormous.
Did my MBA thesis on this subject with the benefit of 20 years of engineering experience. The numbers simply do not work unless you change how cities and residences are built, which would cost far more than you'd ever gain from solving Last Mile costs - the breakeven time is of the order of 100-200 years!
The VERY WORST are US-style suburbs. The best would be Asian-style urban - which NO US CITY is other than some parts of Manhattan.
- maccolgan 5y ago>Asian-style urban Do you include India in Asia?
- toomuchtodo 5y agoWould love to read your thesis if you’re willing to share.
- crocodiletears 5y agoSeconded
- fumar 5y agoWhat do you think about last mile delivery robots? https://www.kiwibot.com https://www.kiwibot.com These little bots don't require the same level of human physical presence as Uber or DoorDash.
- ska 5y ago> What do you think about last mile delivery robots? I suspect these will need truly significant infrastructure changes to actually function as last mile.
- randycupertino 5y agoAgree! If actual human doordash and instacart delivery people can't read the sign or follow instructions to determine our house from the inlaw apartment, I doubt any robot is going to be able to get it done.
- Jasper_ 5y agoThey faked the bots. They require human physical presence, and a remote controller. > The Kiwibots do not figure out their own routes. Instead, people in Colombia, the home country of Chavez and his two co-founders, plot “waypoints” for the bots to follow, sending them instructions every five to 10 seconds on where to go. > On the ground in Berkeley, people also do a lot of robot support. Traveling at 1 to 1½ mph, the bots would take too long to chug to local restaurants, so Kiwi workers pick up the food at restaurants and take it via bikes or scooters to meeting spots around campus to insert into an insulated bag in the bots’ storage compartment. > The average distance a robot covers for a delivery is about 200 meters (656 feet, or one-eighth of a mile) which makes them fall short of a “last-mile” solution. From https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Kiwibots-win-fans-at-UC-Berkeley-as-they-deliver-13895867.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Kiwibots-win-fa...
- agentdrtran 5y agoThis seems comically complex and wasteful compared to the extremely old fashioned "restaurant hires person with a bike" solution.
- vkou 5y agoIt is, but you can't get VC funding to subsidize your restaurant's 'person with a bike' hire. Capitalism does not optimize for sustainable global maxima, only local ones - and in this case, the incentives aligned for this to be a local maxima.
- SkyPuncher 5y agoIMO, it's an incredibly valuable "lean" approach. They know that the path finding algorithm isn't the important part right now. The most important thing is proving that the robots can provide the service. These types of path finding algorithms already exist, so it's just a matter of automating and improving margins.
- atleta 5y agoWow, this is space technology then - this is how the earlier Mars rovers used to operate. :)
- airstrike 5y agoAs a fellow MBA, would also love to read your thesis.
- 542354234235 5y agoI would also be extremely interested in reading your thesis.
- mhh__ 5y agoDitto
- bb328 5y agoI'd be really interested to read your thesis if you have it posted somewhere.
- 3finmunchousen 5y agoI would also like to read your thesis.