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An underground delivery train comes to the Atlanta suburbs
- neonate 3y agohttps://archive.ph/mDvRv https://archive.ph/mDvRv
- paulkrush 3y agoSo they can send up to 40 bananas in a pipe rover going 45mph... Hyperloop for lunch sounds like a good idea to me.
- paulkrush 3y agoWait, they can literally send a Subway pork sandwidge in a pipeline pig... That's funny.
- chris_va 3y agoI'm just waiting for this: https://idlewords.com/2007/04/the_alameda_weehawken_burrito_tunnel.htm https://idlewords.com/2007/04/the_alameda_weehawken_burrito_...
- function_seven 3y agoI think that’s the best thing I’ve ever read. Thank you.
- 8n4vidtmkvmk 3y agoOmg I couldn't tell if that was real or not. I thought it couldn't be but damn they put so much detail into that article!
- simbolit 3y agostrong recommendation for everything Maciej Cegłowski has ever written. especially the talks are very much worth your while: https://idlewords.com/talks/ https://idlewords.com/talks/
- kgeist 3y agoI wonder what's their plan when a vehicle gets stuck?
- hasoleju 3y agoI assume they are planning to have some kind of rescue vehicle. But the problem with this will be the traffic jam the stuck vehicle will cause. Not only will all the vehicles behind it need to stop as well, they also need to be rerouted in order to let the rescue vehicle pass. The main difference of pumping water or gas through pipes is that the consumer does not care which part of the pumped product he gets. It's all the same. Delivering customer specific goods through pipes requires a very good management of the vehicle flow.
- hanniabu 3y agoSimply back the other vehicles out, it's not rocket science
- KennyBlanken 3y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-line_working https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-line_working They're likely only running a single tunnel during very early testing in order to keep costs down. Their idea is basically a cargo-carrying, miniature version of a rubber-tyre metro: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber-tyred_metro https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber-tyred_metro ..which is a century old concept. Thus well-understood, as evidenced by the wikipedia article listing their benefits and downsides versus rail.
- neilv 3y ago> developed by the logistics startup Pipedream Labs Great company name. (Other tunnel-related company with a clever name: The Boring Company.)
- everybodyknows 3y ago> Pipedream Labs Unlike the WSJ piece, the company web site has as you'd expect, no paywall: https://www.pipedreamlabs.co/ https://www.pipedreamlabs.co/
- Animats 3y agoThere's a project in Switzerland to build an underground network of cargo tubes.[1] Cargo Sous Terrain has been making animated videos since 2016, though, and as yet has very little hardware to show. Their proposed tunnels are 6 meters in diameter and have 3 lanes, traversed by AGVs. [1] https://www.cst.ch/en https://www.cst.ch/en
- KennyBlanken 3y ago[flagged]
- Animats 3y agoIf the alternative is building more road and rail through mountains, a 6M tunnel might look like a good option. Less rock to remove.
- Xylakant 3y ago“Expensive” is always a relative term. The Swiss have a good overground rail network and for example branch lines sometimes run combined cargo/passenger trains. No need for dedicated tunnels here. Payoff in a city, especially with little existing rail infrastructure may look different. Hamburg for example tried to establish a 45cm diameter tube mail system in the 1960ies https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohrpost_in_Hamburg https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohrpost_in_Hamburg and that seems like a more viable concept for a city than a full fledged rail tunnel. The system ultimately failed for multiple reasons, but one was that the vibrations cause by cars and trucks damaged the tubes :(
- creesch 3y agoTunneling is indeed expensive, if that is how this will be build. Given that the footprint of such a system likely will be relatively small it might just be build in the same way we build other underground infrastructure of a similar size. Or do you think they also didn't bother building sewers in Swiss cities and towns and are still all using outhouses? > When the guys sitting on piles of nazi gold and the money from dead foreign despots say "nah fam, that shit's too expensive", there's no way anyone else could afford it. lol, that's one hell of a top tier hyperbolic stereotyping trope supported "argument".
- adrianmonk 3y agoI was curious how the package is loaded and unloaded, given that it's underground, but they seem to have some kind of crane, and at the destinations they have basically a package locker. At least, that's what the video seems to show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STZJyfAl5bU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STZJyfAl5bU Putting a package locker at every location seems kind of expensive. Maybe it works if you're delivering to bigger buildings like offices or apartment buildings, but it doesn't seem very practical for single family homes.
- hanniabu 3y agoI can imagine people sending sabotage packages, like a spray foam can set to release on a trigger, or sending down a car airbag, or straight up dumping oil or flammables into the shoot or other trash.
- pavel_lishin 3y agoIt doesn't even have to be malicious.
- KennyBlanken 3y agoThe cost of a package locker would pale in comparison to the cost of digging or boring the underground line.
- quickthrowman 3y agoAbsolutely, directional boring and installing 18-24” diameter pipe is easily $75-100+ per foot.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- ianburrell 3y agoThe described system is point-to-point from shopping center to office park. People in office park, that aren't closer to shopping center, would need to go to the hub to pick up their package. It sounds like the company is focusing on company to suppliers. They mention networks but no details on that would be implemented.
- senectus1 3y agosounds like a boring company project
- echelon 3y agoDidn't think I would see Peachtree Corners on HN. While Atlanta has 71 streets named "Peachtree" [1] and Peachtree City (where people drive golf carts instead of cars [2]) comes close, Peachtree Corners names everything Peachtree. Highways, bridges, businesses. Moreover, it's a planned community, and they did it intentionally. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peachtree_Street https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peachtree_Street [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peachtree_City,_Georgia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peachtree_City,_Georgia
- sepen77 3y agoFirst time I'm seeing this concept myself and it's intriguing at first sight! (will obviously have to do some scrutiny before drawing conclusions though). It's evoking memories of Omashu & factorio-like games :)
- KennyBlanken 3y agoIt's a mini Rubber-Tyre Metro for cargo. Low RoW maintenance (I think), high vehicle maintenance/wear, high energy usage. The challenge to me: "just put it underground" isn't nearly as easy as people seem to think. There's a lot of people-placed stuff underground, and the companies doing it have likely been around longer than you, are pretty regulated, and nobody is going to want to change any of that for your Sandwich Delivering Subway. Especially because it is limited in purpose (cargo delivery, and fairly small cargo at that.) Then there's all the shit that's in the ground not from humans. Roots. Boulders. Water. It's really fucking expensive to dig or tunnel, and there's no way delivering sandwiches and amazon packages is going to pay enough for it. Assuming all that works out, there's still the matter of energy efficiency (which is terrible for RTM), speed, and capacity. I'm sure they can scale the "train" up to at least a few containers particularly if the container 'cars' are self-powered but non-rail vehicles use a lot of power. That means heat, not just the expense of the the power and hassle of either storing or transmitting it. This does solve the main problem with pneumatic systems - even more tightly constrained cargo size limitations and massive power consumption. Frankly, the Dutch are giggling at all this, I'm sure, because "just build a protected bike lane or shared-use path" is a much cheaper, easier, multi-benefit idea. Then not only can people get their sandwiches and packages delivered via a guy on a bike in a very energy-efficient way (a cargo bike uses about a tenth of the electricity even the best EV cars do), but they can safely bike to/from their office complex or home to other places. You've got something emergency vehicles can use in a pinch, too.
- 8n4vidtmkvmk 3y agoThe bike can be self driving too, no? Should be easier that SDVs if we limit it to a few well known paths. Add digital guiderails if needed.
- thebears5454 3y ago[flagged]
- WalterBright 3y agoThat's because the old transit lines were redone as bike paths.
- creesch 3y agoReally now? That's the entire reason the US has problems with transit because some old rails are now bike paths? There really isn't any other reason you can think of?
- WalterBright 3y agoThat's the trouble in King County. Creating new right-of-way is terribly expensive and destructive. The old rail system used to provide mass transit, and it ran through the cities in the county. The County also goes to great lengths to spend as much money as possible. When digging a new tunnel, the excavated material was used to stuff the old tunnel, meaning there was no increase in capacity. In another instance, once the tunnel was finished, the $$$$$$$ tunnel boring machine was sold for scrap instead of being reused.
- creesch 3y agoOld unused railways being repurposed as bike paths actually can be good for general mobility, traffic safety, etc. In the case you are describing I'd still say it is more of a symptom of an underlying issue to be honest. One you yourself do actually describe. > The County also goes to great lengths to spend as much money as possible. When digging a new tunnel, the excavated material was used to stuff the old tunnel, meaning there was no increase in capacity. In another instance, once the tunnel was finished, the $$$$$$$ tunnel boring machine was sold for scrap instead of being reused. To me this more or less seems to hint at an overall lack of vision on transit and traffic in general. Or rather, the unwillingness to do the investments necessary. Frankly, the fact that you even got biking infrastructure at all is sort of amazing and probably only happened because the investment needed was minimal.
- delegate 3y agoAnyone who played Factorio knows that belts, especially underground ones, are the thing.
- keyboard_slap 3y agoTo a point. Their usefulness is typically eclipsed by trains, drones, and direct insertion in the late game. Let's extend the metaphor. If you're trying to move a small, intermittent supply of products from around 1km away to your base, do you build an underground belt (this startup's gadgetbahn) or connect it to your rail network (existing roads and sidewalks)?
- project2501a 3y agoSo, Adam Something: "Elon Musk's Loop is a Bizarrely Stupid Idea", but instead of loop "We have the USPS already, convince Congress to stop destroying it" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACXaFyB_-8s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACXaFyB_-8s https://jacobin.com/2020/09/usps-postal-service-mail-voting-trump-dejoy https://jacobin.com/2020/09/usps-postal-service-mail-voting-...
- ponector 3y agoNot clear why they want to put that into the tunnel. There are already autonomous solutions for last mile delivery: robots using pedestrian sidewalks. No need to bore anything, easy to navigate and to rescue if there is an issue. >>Underground tubes are already the transportation method of choice for essentials like water, sewage, and Wi-Fi. Underground tubes with wifi? Good joke
- Sharlin 3y agoPresumably "Wi-Fi" these days means "any Internet connection that’s not cellular". And to be fair, cellular data mostly travels underground too.
- ponector 3y agoIn many places method of choice for WiFi is a cellular connection. Such poor wording is not acceptable for business newspaper.
- creesch 3y ago> There are already autonomous solutions for last mile delivery: robots using pedestrian sidewalks. I have to say, it is a bold choice labeling those as a solution. Given the amount of deliveries done all day neighborhoods would be crawling with robots like this. So for neighborhoods that actually do have sidewalks, pedestrians would be hugely inconvenienced. Then there are neighborhoods that don't have sidewalks where these robots would need to share the road. There is also the amount of resources needed for each solution. These robots are fairly complex, require batteries, etc. If they take off in a huge way that means a huge amount of future e-waste being created. Batteries need replacing often, these robots will break down, certainly in certain climates, etc. Of course an underground system needs to be build at some point as well. However, it is much more of a one time upfront investment with lower costs down the road to maintain the system. At the very least you are not creating another environmental strain by having to fabricate a ton of batteries. An underground system is also more likely to just work in various challenging climates. No overheating electronics in hot climates, no snow and ice related challenges in colder climates. Delivery robots are cool. But they are, in my opinion, nothing more than a band-aid.
- divbzero 3y agoThis is an interesting idea and I’ll be curious to see if the economics works out, but I hope the company realizes that “pipe dream” does not have positive connotations.
- samtho 3y agoI actually thought the name was cute/clever considering the ambitions they have. It also conveys an awareness that this is a moonshot product which is also suggests they are grounded in some rationality.
- p1mrx 3y agoSee also: Boom, Soylent. Are there any other negatively-named companies?
- alwinaugustin 3y agoThis article hits home for me! I've been daydreaming about underground delivery systems for years, especially as I watch traffic pile up and delivery bikes swarm the streets. Imagine if food delivery went entirely underground – meals would arrive in a flash! The same could revolutionise e-commerce, eliminating delays for in-stock items at local warehouses. I've floated this idea to friends, but they often dismissed it as too futuristic or requiring impossible infrastructure. Seeing this pilot project in Peachtree Corners gives me immense hope! Maybe my underground delivery dream isn't so far-fetched after all.
- ramesh31 3y agoIf you're already trenching tunnels through suburban neighborhoods, seems like adding residential fiber would be a no brainer. Could make the whole thing a lot more sustainable.
- bluGill 3y agoMaybe, but it isn't clear as if you do this and one system breaks the other system also has to be taken down for repairs. Sure you can put fiber in these tubes, but if the tube needs to be replaced you have to cut/splice the fiber inside. Likewise if a tube collapses (more likely to break the fiber than if it was surrounded by dirt) you have to do something about that fiber to get it out. So long term it could be worse to do this. Note that we are talking about small tunnels here. A large tunnel that a human could walk in allows more flexibility.
- throw310822 3y agoIf any Dutch entrepreneur is listening: I have been dreaming about the same delivery mechanism for the Netherlands. Difference with Atlanta? There are canals everywhere, inside and outside the cities. It might be possible to just lay a waterproof pipe at the bottom of many existing canals to create an extremely cheap network for autonomous robotic deliveries.
- pavel_lishin 3y agoIt feels like repairing such a system would be significantly more difficult - if you get a crack or a leak, your whole system is suddenly flooded, and if you need to repair just one section, you have to find a way to keep the rest dry.
- throw310822 3y agoRepairing it seems easier than if it is underground, but certainly it has a failure mode (leak/ flood) that a normal underground pipe doesn't have. However we're talking about fairly shallow canals (a few metres). I wonder what is the failure rate for reasonably priced semi-flexible prefabricated pipes with a diameter of maybe a metre, or even less.
- treis 3y agoProbably can keep it pressurized enough to keep water out if there's a crack.
- throw310822 3y agoSeems like keeping them pressurised would add yet more costs. I would rather let the sections fail (assuming it's rare) and have automatic valves sealing the failed section from the rest (something very simple, like an inflating balloon that fills the entire diameter of the pipe).
- finnh 3y agowhy not use boats, on the surface of the water?
- oooyay 3y agoWhen I worked in sewer inspection I heard a lot about the rate of degradation of in-ground infrastructure. One thing that was touted a lot was that the math doesn't work out at present; we can't replace infrastructure as fast as it degrades in net. I was curious if the 10 years since I've been NAASCO certified if things have changed or if non-water/sewer infrastructure was potentially different. Turns out, costs average out in the long term between above and in-ground infrastructure: https://www.roads.maryland.gov/opr_research/md-03-sp208b4c-cost-benefits-for-overhead-vs-underground-utility-study_report.pdf https://www.roads.maryland.gov/opr_research/md-03-sp208b4c-c...
- jstarfish 3y agoI'm curious if Atlanta has the same issues as you're familiar with. Under a thin layer of topsoil the ground is impermeable clay, and they don't have earthquakes. Known problems with the sewer systems go neglected without incident for decades.
- oooyay 3y agoI'm just kind of spitballing this but: Depending on when the pipe is laid (and sometimes you don't have a choice) if the clay is dry and then gets wet and expands it could crack the pipe. A cracked interior will always spread. Clay, when dry, is rigid and I would think if the earth moves it's probably going to shove the pipe rather than move around it. That'd probably cause the pipe to either fracture or dislodge. Even if none of the above happens that means that if they pipe does develop a defect for something more common (eg: a tree root intruding) then the running water will be split. It'd cause the clay on the bottom part of the pipe to begin to wash away either back into the pipe or it'll find porous material to seep through eventually eroding the structural support of the pipe. I've seen situations like this that basically create mini cave systems and the surface of the earth will appear in-tact until something heavy drives over it. That said, I never worked in Atlanta so I'm not familiar with what defects or the infrastructure look like there.
- maCDzP 3y agoI wonder how long it’s going to take to break even. It’s pretty expensive to install piping. Even if you use no-dig tech. Also, if they go out of business the infrastructure built isn’t going to be taken away. The problem being that a huge part of rising construction cost in infrastructure is poor documentation of current infrastructure. You have a lot of stops in production when you encounter unknown piping.
- bluGill 3y agoThat depends on the local legal framework. Many states have a one call program, and if you properly call the number anything you encounter that isn't marked isn't your problem if you go through it. (you still need to be careful as things can kill you, but legally you are not at fault for breaking anything that wasn't marked) The hard part is in places where there are things of archeological interest. Most of the US doesn't have this as North America has a lack of easily accessible materials that will last and so the ancients mostly used things that didn't last. In most of the world (and parts of the US) ancient civilization often left things behind that are of interest.
- gosub100 3y agoI wonder if they could supplement their income by being an ISP? the "last mile" is (apparently) the single biggest cost in that industry as well. For the low, low cost of a few fibre lines (which can snarf down 100s of gigabits these days) you can provide "last mile" services to anyone at the end of your tunnel thanks to 5G. If you got even more fancy, design the system so you can drill into it anywhere along the way, and robotically add new taps (not to the fibre, but to copper or microwave lines) along the way. They have directional drilling already for drilling under highways or angled oil/gas pipelines.
- juujian 3y agoThey cite pneumatic tubes as an inspiration. Why not straight up build pneumatic tubes of their own?
- mschuster91 3y agoMaintaining pressurized grids is hard enough for the systems in use in hospitals, and any small failure in a pressurized pipe has the potential for a huge disaster.
- black6 3y agoChemical plants, on the whole, seem to manage pressurized systems quite well.
- mschuster91 3y agoYeah, but these tend to be enclosed inside of a factory, with no external factors like cable-seeking machines (i.e. your average backhoe) or terrorists to take into account.
- pavel_lishin 3y agoThey also don't allow random people to shove something into a box, and then shove that box into the tube.
- skywhopper 3y agoWhat a terrible idea. The pilot only has one pipe that goes between two locations. There’s no indication of how they would scale this to actually be useful for local delivery. And maintenance when the trolleys break down would be a nightmare. Just like the Boring Company tunnels, the folks who dream this stuff up don’t think about how it can scale beyond a demo. They just figure they’ll figure it out later, but real-world tech is not like scaling a SaaS product.
- thedrbrian 3y agoBut VC money to burn….. They should add AI in there somewhere
- jstarfish 3y ago> The pilot only has one pipe that goes between two locations. There’s no indication of how they would scale this to actually be useful for local delivery. This must be the same group that pitched MARTA.
- hyperific 3y agoWhat happens to the tubes if the company goes out of business?
- simbolit 3y agoThe same as with other assets: Someone will buy it from the bankruptcy auction.
- mountainofdeath 3y agoThis isn't a new concept. NYC (among other cities) had networks of Pneumatic tubes to shuttle intra-city mail around. For NYC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumatic_tube_mail_in_New_York_City https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumatic_tube_mail_in_New_Yor... For Paris: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_pneumatic_post https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_pneumatic_post It will be interesting if the economics work in suburban sprawl.
- hn_throwaway_99 3y agoHence, the article: > As the company’s name teases, the idea may seem futuristic, but it’s far from new. Let’s call it a cousin of the pipe-forward delivery solution favored in the 19th and early 20th century — the pneumatic tube. In cities like London and New York, networks of pipes that snaked underground and through buildings allowed people to send urgent packages, telegrams, checks, and at least one sick cat whooshing through offices, banks and mailrooms, powered by compressed air.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- divbzero 3y agoPneumatic tubes are also still in use on a smaller scale: for trash collection [1], in hospitals [2], and in stores [3]. [1]: https://ny.curbed.com/2018/4/12/17226296/new-york-infrastructure-pneumatic-tubes-hyperloop https://ny.curbed.com/2018/4/12/17226296/new-york-infrastruc... [2]: https://www.swisslog-healthcare.com/en-gb/company/blog/how-a-pneumatic-tube-system-works https://www.swisslog-healthcare.com/en-gb/company/blog/how-a... [3]: https://www.reddit.com/r/Costco/comments/zt29bw/my_costco_still_has_a_pneumatic_tube_system/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Costco/comments/zt29bw/my_costco_st...
- hn_throwaway_99 3y agoI always wondered why things like this weren't more prevalent, and the only answer I could come to was "jobs". That is, given the networks of underground infrastructure that already exist, it seems like this would be totally plausible for pretty much any midsize+ city to build this out to replace all conventional mail delivery (that is, basically anything that can fit in a standard size mailbox). But that would result in tons of mailmen/women being made redundant. Am I just misunderstanding the complexity of building out one of these systems? Long term it seems like it would be much cheaper than current last mile delivery. I also realize that there are tons of processes that are kept inefficient due to "jobs inertia", so I don't think this is something new. Whenever I have to wait in line at the neighborhood pharmacy to pick up a prescription, I always think "How is pharmacist still a job?" Everything seems like it could be made much more efficient if pill cases were standardized and you could just pick things up at something resembling a vending machine. I'm not saying I never have questions for a pharmacist or want them to review something, but like 50% at least of the stuff they do should be automatable.
- Deprecate9151 3y agoI think for the pharmacists its simply economics. It's cheaper to have 3 or 4 pharmacists and a bunch of much lower payed techs on staff to do the work manually then develop and maintain automation while complying with existing regulations. I know some hospitals have automatic medication dispensing, so I'm assuming they have much higher volume where it makes sense.
- pavel_lishin 3y agoPharmacists can also catch obviously-wrong prescriptions - "This should be milligrams, not grams. If you take 20 grams of this, you'll die, in a spectacular and gruesome fashion." (Granted, pharmacists can also miss things like this - which is why technology, checklists and humans working together are probably the best solution.)
- hn_throwaway_99 3y agoI can't think of any situation where detection of things like wrong dosages, drug interactions, incorrect prescriptions, etc. couldn't be better tracked and identified by an automated system than a human.
- keyboard_slap 3y agoWhat problem is this system trying to solve? It seems to be, in this initial deployment, that the office park is too far away from the restaurants its employees want to visit, compelling them to drive there. I feel like a better solution would be permitting denser and mixed-use development, so employees can walk to their favorite restaurants on the ground floor instead of driving >1km to them or paying for a delivery tunnel.
- pavel_lishin 3y agoAnd/or encouraging more use of things like bikes. I'd bet that painting a bike lane and putting up concrete barriers is cheaper than trenching out a three-quarter mile pseudo-pneumatic-tube-system.
- cpursley 3y agoHave you spent any time in Atlanta in August? Biking outside is not just biking, but also swimming - through the humidity. I don't mind it (avid all-season mountain biker) but most office workers wouldn't opt for that in their fancy office clothing just for a sandwich.
- thorncorona 3y agoSeems to work fine for singapore / dc.
- cpursley 3y agoEverything is closer in Singapore meaning longer distances (which is the key, a build environment for humans, not cars, first).
- Rebelgecko 3y agoI think it's hard to say things are fine when there's still huge gender disparities, in DC area it's something like 2:1
- pavel_lishin 3y ago> The pipe is 18 inches wide — large enough to fit 40 banana Americans will use literally anything except the metric system. And bicycles, I guess.
- 74tirdjjforiti 3y ago[flagged]
- hydrok9 3y agobicycles are great, as long as no one steals them once you get to your destination
- cpursley 3y agoHeck, try to get them to use their legs. We had neighbors two houses over that would always DRIVE to visit us - from their house. They thought our car was broken down whenever I walked half a mile to the grocery. America is weird.
- quantified 3y agoNot sure why you're downvoted.
- cpursley 3y agoPeople who don’t care to walk, I suppose.
- sojournerc 3y agoNo, I think it was generalizing an entire country of people with an "us" vs "them" tone
- rgmerk 3y agoI think it's pretty fair to suggest that the United States (with very limited exceptions) is the least pedestrian-friendly country in the developed world.
- mfld 3y agoBut how can you successfully deliver food if a pizza doesn't fit in?
- maxglute 3y agoDowngrade from above ground futurama tubes. Also feels like good bomb delivery network.
- BobaFloutist 3y agoMakes me think of the Alameda-Weehawken burrito tunnel: https://idlewords.com/2007/04/the_alameda_weehawken_burrito_tunnel.htm https://idlewords.com/2007/04/the_alameda_weehawken_burrito_...
- anarticle 3y agoLooks interesting, trenching that will probably not be fun. Hope it works out, esp getting city to work with them. The first one to solve this idea is probably the next trillion dollar company. Surprised no one has mentioned Zipline yet, the drone startup that got their start in Rwanda with gliders delivering blood by air. They went on to make a quiet drone that uses a cable attached pod to accurately place deliveries: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOWDNBu9DkU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOWDNBu9DkU
- pylua 3y agoSerious question: What’s the endgame for this company? Get the infrastructure in place then charge absurd subscription fees? Become a monopoly?
- tdeck 3y agoFor those interested in historical things of a similar nature: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Post_Office_Railway https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Post_Office_Railway https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_pneumatic_post https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_pneumatic_post
- tdeck 3y agoSo it's called Pipedream and it's described as a "hyperloop for packages". All of that suggests "this will never get built" so I really admire that they have a working version if indeed that's the case.
- evilos 3y agoThis feels like the setup to a joke in an "AdamSomething" video where the punch line is you just end up with bad traffic in the underground stuff highway too.