24 ms·
Tacocopter - Flying Robots Deliver Tacos To You
- druiid 15y agoI'm uhh... guessing this is a joke, but if it isn't... they'd do brisk business in San Diego!
- ars 15y agoProbably a joke since the batteries last around 15 minutes, especially when carrying a load. It would be amazing if real though. Maybe someone can make a hydrocarbon powered version that would actually have enough range. It would use less fuel than a car, and get there faster to boot. Startup idea?
- prawn 15y agoSet up the site now and get all the attention. Then launch once battery life improves!
- bri3d 15y agoSomething like a quadshot [0] should be more efficient for this task - use quadrotors for the VTOL ability, but convert to far more power-efficient wing for flying at speed. I think it'd be possible to build a large quadshot-esque quadrotor -> flying wing device that would have the 1-3 mile range and ~500gr non-battery payload capacity necessary for taco delivery. [0]: http://thequadshot.com http://thequadshot.com
- matdwyer 15y agoThey can add revenue by flying drugs back across the border!
- niels_olson 15y agoCan you imagine Stone Brewing getting into this? Hungry Marines would be sniping from every bush and the 15 would be littered with downed coptors.
- kposehn 15y agoThey definitely would. I saw this, and even though I know it coming to fruition is highly unlikely, my team and I would patronize them almost every day. OMnomnomnomnomOM
- jallmann 15y agoI'd go for a carne asada burrito delivered to me in PB.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- RandallBrown 15y agoI can't tell if this is for real or not, but I'm praying that it is and it comes to Seattle.
- nathan_f77 15y agoI've been planning to build a quad-rotor to deliver food and beverages around my house, but I never thought that idea could turn into a delivery startup. I can't tell if this is a joke (?), but the technology is definitely available to make it happen.
- bigiain 15y agoThat's probably easier than it might seem. "Balancing" the drinks might seem like a hard problem to solve… http://www.diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/why-doesnt-the-ball-fall-off http://www.diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/why-doesnt-the-ball-...
- egallardo 15y agoOf course it's real. I want my tacos brought from LA though..
- Palomides 15y agohow fast can a quadcopter fly, how far, and how much can it carry? seems like this would only work well in limited contexts, like, say, small deliveries on a particular campus or within a single large building or complex. not to be a complete nay-sayer, but the limits of battery tech are a bit harder to overcome than most software problems.
- lwat 15y agoA $2000 drone can carry around 4 pounds and fly maybe 20 miles. More expensive, bigger drones can do significantly better.
- gaahrdner 15y agoPretty funny, I think the LobsterCopter gave the joke away.
- joe8756438 15y agobe sure to check out the lobstercopter band
- cma 15y agoPretty scary--the same tech could "deliver" a pistol, which then delivers a bullet more or less just as easily.
- meepmorp 15y agoIt's a good thing we haven't yet invented drones that can shoot a missile at you.
- aaronblohowiak 15y agoMany of these are equipped with armaments: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unmanned_aerial_vehicles#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unmanned_aerial_vehicl... They are in active use today: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drone_attacks_in_Pakistan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drone_attacks_in_Pakistan
- prawn 15y agoJust quietly, I think you missed the joke. (Upvoting you to relieve any downvote damage because there are worse mistakes than being too informative!)
- aaronblohowiak 15y agosorry, was stuck in hyper-literal programming mode :-)
- ConstantineXVI 15y agoDrones are tools, just about any useful tool has an equal potential for "good"/"evil". Nothing new here. That said, if you want that sort of delivery, you'd be better served strapping a bomb to the drone instead of mucking around with bullets.
- cma 15y agoSome tools have a higher chance of being asymmetric--the expense to defend against being much harder than the expense to attack with. I'm not saying we should ban these.. don't know why I got buried.
- hornbaker 15y agoThe domain is registered to Star Simpson of MIT, formerly notorious for this story: http://boingboing.net/2007/09/21/mit-student-arrested.html http://boingboing.net/2007/09/21/mit-student-arrested.html
- kf 15y agoStar's totally legit, definitely makes me update towards at least some tacos being delivered by drone, though I doubt there's intention to make this serious business.
- neilk 15y agoOh no, if anyone can make TacoCopters work, it's her. She got arrested for a TSA overreaction, not for a hoax. I'm disappointed in how cynical you people are. We live in a magical world, with axolotls and honey badgers; can we not dare to dream in the TacoCopter?
- EREFUNDO 15y agoSometimes no matter how stupid the idea seems at first if it's executed brilliantly it might just work!....lol
- lucidguppy 15y agoWhy didn't they start out with flying spaghetti?
- erohead 15y agoThey had a more awesome version of the site up earlier this week.
- apinstein 15y agoSadly there is no reasonable path to doing this legally. We are in the real estate photography business and the FAA started cracking down on people using helicopters and other UAV's for commercial purposes. It's not allowed. You can only fly drones/helicopters/etc remotely (or autonomously) as a hobby. more info: http://photographyforrealestate.net/2012/01/24/warning-faa-says-us-airspace-is-closed-to-all-commercial/ http://photographyforrealestate.net/2012/01/24/warning-faa-s...
- lwat 15y agoI think the FAA also states that the drone must be within visible range at all times.
- cpr 15y agoYeah, the growing police state wants to keep that privilege for itself.
- ericd 15y agoOr they just don't want large hunks of metal with sharp spinning things possibly falling out of the sky onto people and things, and so would like to regulate the use of large flying things.
- esmevane 15y agoThis is not valid reasoning. Under this logic, we could feasibly be just as alarmed by balconies of any sort or platforms at any height greater than one story. [Edit]: Which is not to say that there are hurtling objects on these things, but that this is talking about What Happens Least, and there is just as much risk of something falling from a balcony or second+ story area as there is a drone falling mid-flight.
- samfoo 15y agoWhich we are by way of building codes and regulations...
- qq66 15y agoThis idea is currently illegal since FAA regulations restrict unmanned multirotor aircraft from any commercial activities, although they are in the process of changing these rules. So it might go from joke to reality :)
- InclinedPlane 15y agoI don't know if this is real, but this totally justifies the risk of the inevitable quad-copter robot uprising.
- redthrowaway 15y agoStoners Rejoice! The Future is Now! This will eventually happen, though. That means the FAA's going to have to come up with some pretty strict regulations to force manufacturers and operators to ensure their bots don't crash into things/people.
- bigiain 15y agoWon't be able to compete long distance with the Alameda Weehawken Burrito Tunnel: http://www.idlewords.com/2007/04/the_alameda-weehawken_burrito_tunnel.htm http://www.idlewords.com/2007/04/the_alameda-weehawken_burri...
- joshmlewis 15y agoI can't believe I've never heard about this. That's one of the coolest things I've ever heard of.
- sidww2 15y agoYou do know that's fake, right?
- eridius 15y agoWhoosh.
- adaml_623 15y agoThis is the best line I've read all week: 'it took six months to persuade suspicious taqueria owners to switch to a salsa with lower magnetic permittivity' (I know this is likely to be downvoted as being a joke comment but considering I don't believe the original site to be more than a funny joke I would expect upvotes for all funny comments)
- asciilifeform 15y agoNah, everybody knows that drones can only be used to deliver drugs and bombs. Commercial UAVs being illegal in the US, "might as well hang for a sheep as for a lamb."
- Arelius 15y agoThis is something I need in my life! Tacos delivered via flying robot. Could you imagine getting the delivery while at Dolores park?
- colbyh 15y agoThough obviously a joke this is the sort of thing that I'd support breaking the law for. Disrupt the land-based food delivery establishment.
- sebastianavina 15y agoSo, I can steal a Bot for the price of a taco order?
- Cyndre 15y agoThe biggest issue I see is tacocopter naping. Order a $3 taco, get some lunch and a free drone.
- stephengillie 15y agoThe biggest issue I see is random hackers ordering a taco then putting a "TPB Transponder[1]" on several of these. The tacocopter then does double duty as an airborne server. [1] Theoretical easy-to-deploy Android or Raspberry Pi-sized wifi-broadcasting device, to broadcast TPB magnet links.
- ditojim 15y agoi hope this means they can deliver to my balcony. that would be baller.
- Apocryphon 15y agoWasn't there a story last year about a similar service for delivering sandwiches?
- grok2 15y agohttps://themelt.com https://themelt.com?
- srik 15y agoWhen I talked about making quadcopters to my friend, the first thing that popped into his head was something similar. He was thinking about making small weed delivery copters. that was actually a very good idea; not suggestible at all ofcourse.
- asynchronous13 15y agoLast mile delivery will eventually be a huge market for UAVs. Think beyond just tacos -- think about anything that people would pay a premium for to have it delivered to them. Out of milk? No problem. Need your prescription filled? Delivered to your GPS coordinates. Condom delivery? FedEx? The technology is there. The regulations need to catch up.
- lwat 15y agoProbably easier to allow small robots on the roads or sidewalks, running around delivering pizza or whatever.
- asynchronous13 15y agoOddly, the technical challenge of sending a ground robot through an unknown dynamic environment is even more difficult than a flying robot. There's very few obstacles in the sky. Another thing to consider is petty theft and vandalism. Maybe I'm jaded, but I think a ground robot would not last very long. With an aerial vehicle, packages can be dropped with parachutes. (though, I'm pretty sure some will be shot down before they're generally accepted)
- matdwyer 15y agoImagine your mail could be delivered to you like this? Something tells me Amazon will run with this in 10 years and take USPS/Canada Post/etc out of business
- wavephorm 15y agoThis sounds like sci-fi but I think we're not far from being able to do this. I think the entire Postal system could be replaced with UAV's. Why deliver mail by hand when robots would clearly be better and could work 24/7 and not go crazy. Food delivery maybe doesn't have the profit margins to do it yet, but eventually it will.
- jtchang 15y agoImagine landing pads on the top of every house/city. They would look like giant targets used for this copters to land. There could be one within a few meters of where you currently are. You place an order on your cell phone. The copters immediately go to work delivering whatever you needed. A SMS would alert you that your goods have arrived. Maybe there would be secure drop zones where a giant chute would automatically route your package into a secure locker. You would open the locker with your cell phone. Okay I will stop dreaming now.
- Finbarr 15y agoFinally a practical use of QR codes? Each landing pad could have some information embedded via QR to help the copter to distinguish them from one another.
- ngokevin 15y agoUntil I forge your QR code and enjoy your delicious tacos.
- trafficlight 15y agoMaybe GPS coords and a QR code that matches.
- whatusername 15y agoOr until I fill your QR Code target drop-zone with dog-poop in a paper bag.
- skeletonjelly 15y agoNever thought about that. So effectively, QR codes are useful for automation, robots, not humans.
- Finbarr 15y agoSeems to me that QR codes are infinitely more useful to robots than humans. Forget addresses on mail, just QR codes (or the modern day equivalent) on everything that will be handled by robots.
- jbigelow76 15y agoTacocopter - Skynet's more benevolent, munchie abating little brother.
- beambot 15y agoTo quote Chris Anderson, CEO of DIYdrones and Editor-in-chief at wired: Did you know the word "gullible" isn't in the dictionary? Sigh. Prepare for loads of credulous coverage, matching the wave of reporting on the Pirate Bay's stoned suggestion that "we're going to use, er....GPS drones!....to file-trade from the sky. With Raspberry Pi." http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/did-you-know-the-word-gullible-isn-t-in-the-dictionary http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/did-you-know-the-word-gu...
- skeletonjelly 15y agoThanks for putting me in check, remind me next time I dream about the future.
- beambot 15y agoNo, no... it's good to dream about the future. I suggest heading over to DIYdrones, grab some hardware, and help create the future rather than reading about "credulous" projects. There are plenty of real efforts underway to use UAV's in a similar fashion -- for example, to deliver medications in disaster-stricken areas [1] and for building construction [2]. We all have very little time and attention. I simply suggest that we allocate it wisely. [1] Matternet, a Singularity University spinoff -- http://matternet.net/ http://matternet.net/ [2] ETH researchers use UAV's to build 6-meter tower -- http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/diy/video-watch-flying-robots-build-a-6-meter-tower http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/diy/video-watch-...
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- yeahsure 15y agoWhoa! I was daydreaming about this exact same thing (Except it was pizza instead of tacos). I thought they should have a small box that hangs from them so they could drag the box down with a small thread in order to avoid accidents with the propellers. Anyway, awesome idea, hope to see this legally in the near future :-)
- jwarzech 15y agoThey attempted this in small form on 'Marcel's Quantum Kitchen' (its on Netflix) using a toy quadcoptor to 'deliver' a piece of pizza at a dinner party. Didn't really work out to well but interesting concept nonetheless.
- duaneb 15y agoIf this were to happen, I'm imagining tacocopternapping.
- donaldc 15y agoI hope that thing is reasonably quiet.
- kolinko 15y agoMy new startup - Taco Pirates. Hunting down taco drones.
- jaylin 15y agoWatch out for the taco bandit flying robots tho.
- mikemoka 15y agoOk so, how could they protect a UAV from thieves? Anyone could jam the remote control signal or use a net to block it on the ground.They could add an effective gps based alarm and insure the drones,this is a real problem though, only while UAVs are still quite expensive imo
- pkh80 15y agoApril fools jokes starting early this year?
- algoshift 15y agoI've been flying model airplanes, helicopters and other RC contraptions since I was 10 years old. Decades. I've flown, designed and built nearly everything out there, from pure (no motor) gliders to aerobatic planes, electric and turbine jets, helicopters and multi-copters --even an occasional RC blimp. One of my favorites are very high power-to-weight ratio 2 meter-ish gliders with thousands of watts of power. They go straight-up like a rocket and reach incredible speeds, well in excess of 100 miles per hour (youtube: F5B glider). The preface is to say: I get it. I do it. I love it. And, I'll probably stay in this hobby forever. Having kids has a way to help with that. Having said that, I also understand, in no uncertain terms, just how dangerous this stuff can be. I have seen many nasty accidents first hand. A small propeller spinning at 5K or 10K RPM can shred a hand or a face in horrific ways. The idea of toy drones flying around town is a scary one. The FAA is right in wanting to exercise restraint and gradually walk into a sensible set of rules. The have been working very closely with the RC flight community in order to understand the needs and voice their concern as well: http://www.modelaircraft.org/aboutama/gov.aspx http://www.modelaircraft.org/aboutama/gov.aspx I love the idea of small inexpensive drones coming online to help firefighting efforts, disaster aid and such needs. Still, it has to be done right and it has to be done with safety in mind. Small inexpensive model aircraft, even when they cost thousands of dollars, are not designed to the same strict engineering standards of full-scale aircraft in general aviation. Most of these devices suffer from catastrophic single-point failures in their designs. None of them are put through strict process control during manufacturing to ensure that such mundane things as cracked or "cold" solder joints don't creep into a batch. None of them are made with conformal or environmental coatings applied to circuitry. Not one of them uses rugged, vibration and environmentally-tested hardware, boards, wiring, connectors and batteries. As an example of this, a prominent motor controller manufacturer recently produced designs that started to violently catch on fire and even blow-up under varied conditions. They have been reported to catch fire by simply plugging in a battery or in the middle of a flight. In a lot of cases people have lost helicopters costing thousands of dollars to this particular problem. However, in most cases, because the activity took place within the confines of AMA model aircraft flying fields not one person seems to have been hurt and no property (other than the model and electronics) was damaged. Did you know that the LiPo (Lithium Polymer) battery packs these models use can also spontaneously catch fire and explode? YouTube search: "LiPo fire" It's exciting to think of these little things flying about and doing all kinds of things for us. The reality, I think, is as far away as building a C3PO that actually works as it does in the movie. OK, maybe not that far, but nowhere close to reality. The legal and liability hurdles alone are massive. Can someone make a quadcopter that can safely and reliably fly around buildings in a city with an acceptably low probability of failure, redundancy and solid engineering? Sure. But it isn't going to be anything like these little toys we are seeing in hundreds upon hundreds of youtube demos. I believe that, once the FAA has a chance to sort this out there will be really good opportunities for very high quality, professionally designed drones. It'll be a few years though. And rightly so.
- jaequery 15y agowould make a great alternative to duck-hunting
- philjackson 15y agoMy next startup will be air rifle sales in SF.
- hef19898 15y agoNice idea. Only one remark: Anyone has ever seen the dicrepancy between the concepts of new aircrafts and the things that actually fly? Aviation is one of the most conservative industries I know, and for a good reason considering the fact one accident kills probably hundreds of people at once. You can argue that some regulations are more on the red tape side, but most of them are here for good reason. If I were a start-up, I would rather follow these regulations or have really deep pockets AND official support if I dont't, like SpaceX for example. That said, I'm not sure if it is for real or not... Funny idea having a flying delivery claptrap bringing you your tacos :-)
- forgottenpaswrd 15y agoIn the south of Spain it would be an impossible business. Once I get into a library to return a book, entering the library I saw a bicycle attached to the wall, when I went out of the library I saw the chain cut and the bicycle gone with some parts of it in the floor. It was shocking how fast everything went, it is like you look at something, then look away for a moment and then its gone. In Spain gitanos will learn how to pilot UAVs (or "fish" them) in a blink of an eye.
- phreeza 15y agoI am always shocked by the blatant racism even educated and otherwise "normal" Spanish people display towards Gitanos.
- rickmb 15y agoI am always shocked by the fact that people equate a negative view of Roma/Gitanos with racism. Disliking a parasitic culture that fosters the notion that it is okay to steal from "others" is not racism since it a) has nothing to do with race but culture, and b) it's based on fact, not prejudice.
- Retreads 15y agoAKA: Quadrocopters - Flying Robots Deliver Themselves To You! With all the crazy scamming I've experienced on places like Craigslist, I can't imagine there wouldn't be some jerk that would just start taking the vehicles. Even if there's some type of visual/tracking, they'd figure it out. How many tacos would have to be delivered to deal with that kind of shrinkage?
- littlemerman 15y agoThis a a sign of the coming techpocalypse.
- ParadisoShlee_ 15y agoId rather just install Pneumatic tubes everywhere, Tacotubes!
- feralmoan 15y agoTacoCopter has really incentivize for me, a Taco-centric dietary pivot. It's advanced culinary airborne delivery agent is HUGELY disruptive. I can tell by the screams!
- Maven911 15y agoI am suprised no one has called an outright FAKE on this!
- abend 15y agoApparently this doesn't really exist. http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/03/qa-with-tacocopter/ http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/03/qa-with-tacocopter/