3 ms·
Doesn't it also require a ton of energy to move a five ton truck to my driveway in order to deliver a 100g charging cable? I'm not sure the laws of physics are
by sebzim4500 3y ago
Doesn't it also require a ton of energy to move a five ton truck to my driveway in order to deliver a 100g charging cable?
I'm not sure the laws of physics are on the side of the status quo here.
- l33t233372 3y agoI would bet that even the worst Amazon truck gets more pounds of product per Joule expended than the best drone for any reasonably real world distance/load.
- BizarroLand 3y agoThe difference is both direct ground contact and fuel capacity. Even if a drone could carry the energy equivalent of a 20 gallon fuel tank with it, it would waste the majority of that energy both keeping itself and its energy aloft. Tires and other ground plane vehicles, mitigate the majority of that waste in exchange for increased navigational difficulty (regarding obstacles like buildings and trees but also moving objects like vehicles in its path). The self-driving robots made some sense but only for very local (couple of block radius) delivery.
- SAI_Peregrinus 3y agoAnd fixed-wing aircraft are substantially more efficient than rotorcraft.
- BizarroLand 3y agoAnything that does not have to be constantly and continuously pumped with more energy in order to not immediately crash is going to be more efficient than the alternative. A paraglider drone with a tiny parachute would be more efficient than any 3/4/6/8 motor drone copter
- S201 3y agoAs usual, the difference is energy density between hydrocarbon fuels and Li-ion batteries. Power the drone with gas and it becomes a different story. But then you just re-created the helicopter and all the problems which explain why no one is doing helicopter package deliveries.
- NovaDudely 3y agoAmazon's delivery always felt odd to me because of this exact situation. Long term how sustainable can it be to work on such an extreme scale like that? The margins they must be hiding on via products must be good.
- Incipient 3y agoHovering like a drone has to overcome gravity, which is hard/expensive. A truck only has to overcome rolling friction, which is easy/cheap.
- jareklupinski 3y agoyou probably paid at least $5 for that cable, but the cost of materials in the cable was likely less than a dollar the rest of the money went into the gas tank of the truck you and everyone else who ordered a cable that day on that route chipped in to fill the truck up
- 1attice 3y agowinning response. Thank you for the clarity and simplicity.