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2 is surprising as that’s the opposite of where I’d expect delivery drones to be useful. You don’t need them in dense urban environments where a stocked truck o
by djohnston 3y ago
2 is surprising as that’s the opposite of where I’d expect delivery drones to be useful. You don’t need them in dense urban environments where a stocked truck offloads inventory with low mileage. You want them in rural areas where as the crow flies makes a difference and it’s expensive to have a truck driving about sparsely populated areas.
- ajhurliman 3y agoI saw a demo recently where they had a drone flying high and it zip-lined a package down to the destination directly below it, so the drone never had to get close to the ground. I’m not sure if that’s current strategy but it seems like a cool idea to cut down on noise and proximity issues.
- dole 3y agoI think this is the popular route they’re going, to avoid drone theft/vandalism, problem is still the liability of dropping things on people’s heads regardless of CV or other sensors.
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoThat’s actually an idea: create a lightweight Ariel tram way just for package delivery. Sort of like the old vacuum tube networks some cities used to have.
- andrewinardeer 3y agoThis is happening in select parts of Australia. https://wing.com/en_au/press/australia/ https://wing.com/en_au/press/australia/
- papower 3y agoThis is how Manna Aero (1) are doing it in Ireland (2) and soon parts of Texas (3). 1. https://www.manna.aero/ https://www.manna.aero/ 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCnpxmhWRuw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCnpxmhWRuw and https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/drone-regulation-ireland-europe-manna-delivery-zenadrone-iaa-safety https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/drone-regulation-ir... 3. https://dronelife.com/2023/05/08/manna-drone-delivery-flies-into-the-us-scores-new-investment-from-coca-cola-hbc https://dronelife.com/2023/05/08/manna-drone-delivery-flies-...
- Analemma_ 3y agoThe issue there is that the battery tech to support long distance delivery drones does not exist yet.
- djohnston 3y agoInteresting, I am woefully ignorant on typical drone ranges.
- datavirtue 3y agoWinner. Battery capacity needs to double and charge twice as fast to make EV adoption possible.
- NotYourLawyer 3y agoSwappable batteries makes the charge time a nonissue.
- datavirtue 3y agoSwappable 1000lb batteries? Gasoline weighs 80lbs.
- vrosas 3y agoNow I’m imagining a larger, fixed-wing loitering drone carrying the package(s) and a small last-mile drone that detaches, drops its payload at the destination and then returns to the mothership.
- dizhn 3y agoThere should be even larger drones that are always in the air that are used as supply hubs for these smaller drones. Actually those should be whole warehouses where people work.
- rightbyte 3y agoWhy not a zeppelin? (The prospect of delivery drones is silly, but whatever it is fun to think about).
- ortusdux 3y agoI'd like to see someone try integrating them into the delivery trucks. Roof mount it, make it easy to load from the back storage area, and have it auto charge. That way drivers can choose to hand off smaller packages to it and launch when they are delivering close by.
- tnel77 3y agoThis is a wonderful idea! I’d love to see this implemented somewhere.
- kaycebasques 3y agoThe old "why not both" solution :) (I'm not being sarcastic. "Why not both?" thinking is powerful!)
- ooterness 3y agoWhere have I seen this before? https://wiki.factorio.com/Personal_roboport https://wiki.factorio.com/Personal_roboport
- adhesive_wombat 3y agoAnd the 'drone spitter' USPS vans in the Ready Player One film.
- myself248 3y agoThat's how I've always imagined it. The top of the FedEx truck is a mini-helipad, and there are two people on the truck. As the truck makes its normal route stopping to deliver heavy packages on foot, there are two drones darting back and forth delivering light ones, with someone constantly feeding them packages and batteries. Somewhere years ago I have a chat log where I describe the whole thing as imagined, including the phrase "print out helipad_qr.pdf and tape it to your driveway" as part of the process. ;)
- ARandomerDude 3y ago
- roarcher 3y agoThe thing that makes rural areas inefficient for trucks (distance between customers) is far worse for drones. Drones have to be based out of somewhere close to the customer due to their short battery life, which means you have to have a lot of bases, each of which only serves a handful of customers. A truck will burn a lot of fuel per customer, but a single one can still serve a large area on one tank and can be based out of a nearby city.
- _hypx 3y agoA truck will burn a lot less fuel per kg of cargo. That's because it is carrying many packages at once and fuel consumption is split across all packages. A drone only carries one package. So in reality a truck is a way more efficient way of delivering good.
- schiffern 3y agoSeems like the best compromise is something like the "drone spitter" delivery trucks from Ready Player One. The truck wouldn't need to slow down (let alone stop), multiple drones would give high utilization, and you could further optimize delivery routes by "crow flying" to houses that aren't even on the same street. https://www.inverse.com/article/43043-ready-player-one-drone-postal-trucks https://www.inverse.com/article/43043-ready-player-one-drone... https://www.imcdb.org/v001094117.html https://www.imcdb.org/v001094117.html
- floren 3y agoAnytime you think, "ah, the solution is this thing from Ready Player One", step back and remember the following: - that book was set in a shitty gig economy dystopia, even if the main character managed to personally get rich in the end - that book was fucking terrible and it's frankly embarrassing that grown adults make reference to it in a positive manner
- ant_li0n 3y agoYou know what’s even worse? The audiobook version, narrated by Will Wheaton.
- carabiner 3y ago2 is wrong and you are exactly right. Amazon explains drones are exactly for meant for rural areas here: https://youtu.be/yMqbj4Kj-z0?t=688 https://youtu.be/yMqbj4Kj-z0?t=688 A lone driver might get paid X $/hour but in a rural area, only reach a single house with his truck, whereas the same driver might make 10x deliveries in the same time period in an urban area. And optimally, you'd have one drone pilot controlling multiple drones at the same time with each one taking less time than a car. I'm guessing the biggest cost here isn't fuel or energy, it's the staffing.
- karaterobot 3y agoIn his point #2, he is saying you can deliver to rural areas, but not to densely populated areas like cities, where there are not enough landing sites. I have no idea whether this is correct or not.