5 ms·

UPS Also Said To Be Testing Drone Delivery

37 points by akrymski 13y ago

cfontes 13y ago
Who isn't? This Drone thing(for me they are RC helis, but let's not argue about that.) is looking more and more like a PR stunt than anything else.
danielweber 13y ago
Cheek is so far in tongue that it got swallowed. UPS already has drones, they are called people, and they work pretty well. UPS will go to a driverless (or remote-controlled) truck with a human in it to run packages to doors before they do a truck (human-driven or otherwise) with drones launching from it.
- 6cxs2hd6 13y ago
  Although the human drones do work pretty well, flying drones will be able to ring the doorbell and run away much faster. Seriously, I wish all the organizations with a holiday season PR problem would issue one, joint "look at this waving hand" press release. Microsoft will deliver more Surface by drone! The US HHS will Berlin Airlift insurance forms to homes across the nation! Delta will deliver your lost luggage to your hotel by drone! &c. I'm sure CBS "News" will promote those, too. These days, they believe anything. /headdesk
nswanberg 13y ago
Sadly the article just quotes a Verge article (http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/3/5169878/ups-is-researching-its-own-delivery-drones-to-compete-with-amazons http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/3/5169878/ups-is-researching...) which itself just quotes some anonymous people at UPS, and then has a couple of people's reactions to the rumors. So not very interesting. I guess the Techcrunch article adds some predictable jokes and a meme illustration, leaving us to ponder the idea of what our grandparents would think about this article--premise, illustration, and all. Or better yet, the idea of our grandparents being shown this article in 1963 by some future-man. The notion of a future flying delivery robot would have been passe--it's the illustration that would have blown their minds.
- pit 13y ago
  Welcome to ad-supported content!
- blisterpeanuts 13y ago
  UPS also now appears to be interested in replacing its reliable army of brown-shorted carriers with repurposed evil mindless deathbots. This is one of the reasons I avoid TechCrunch, which appears to be a sensationalist/gossip-mongering type of opinion platform pandering to teenagers, rather than a true tech news organization. Previously they had an article on what they called the uselessness of near-field communication (NFC) devices, even to the point of redefining the initials as "Nobody F--king Cares" (my obfuscation, not theirs). Really? I do care.
  - esrauch 13y ago
    To be fair, no one else cares. What percentage of those NFC supporting services do you think have ever used it? I would be surprised if it was even 1%.
    - blisterpeanuts 13y ago
      Probably. But for vertical market and internal applications (building access, inventory control, time tracking), NFC is getting a lot of attention. I suspect it won't achieve a mass market for a few years, if ever, given Apple's utter lack of interest and lack of a killer application. Plus, QR codes are cheaper to use, albeit read-only.
      - esrauch 13y ago
        I wouldn't exactly hold up QR codes as a successful technology either, in the US at least.
DanielBMarkham 13y ago
"...The delivery drones will block out the sun, and all will be plunged into darkness. On the bright side, we'll get our Kindles in record time..." Well hey, as long as the NSA is not involved, I don't think there's a downside here. [Obviously a send-up of the publicity stunts we're seeing that try to pass for tech news lately]
ck2 13y ago
insert company name wants free news coverage for using drones. So drones for now are kinda silly. But what about self-driving cars? Instead of half hour delivery, be more realistic like twice a day coverage a city (instead of for example UPS arriving 8pm at my door).
- potatolicious 13y ago
  You can't really have an unmanned delivery truck. The truck can't put the package at your door, ring your doorbell, or collect a signature. I suspect the limiting factor in twice-a-day deliveries is labor cost.
  - swalsh 13y ago
    You could take one of those 7/11 cabinets where you scan a bar code to open it, and put it in a truck. Then an automated system calls, and asks where you are (i'm at my office xyz fake street) the car shows up around an agreed upon window, then calls you. You walk out to the truck, pick up your item, and it goes to the next person. I would pay extra for that because I hate it when they leave a note because i'm getting my pants on.
  - jerf 13y ago
    For this reason, I think this whole drone thing is silly. By the time this is economically practical, you'll be better off with a self-driving car and a secondary ground delivery robot. Adding the complication of flinging them through the air isn't worth it. (It may actually simplify the programming, which is probably why we're talking about this at all, but regardless of how great the programming is, it's just not going to be as safe to have these flying through the air, loaded with kinetic energy, through low-level airspace, as it will for them to be on the ground, rolling along, safely.)
    - stevesearer 13y ago
      A fleet of drones flying through the air is a silly concept in my city where buildings cannot be more than 3 stories high as to not block the views.
codfrantic 13y ago
http://www.waterstones.com/blog/2013/12/introducing-o-w-l-s/ http://www.waterstones.com/blog/2013/12/introducing-o-w-l-s/ is much nicer..
bruceboughton 13y ago
If UPS want to one-up Amazon, they should announce they will be 3D printing their drones and choosing flight paths using Big Data.
- jdiez17 13y ago
  And crunching all of this Big Data in The Cloud. Using Node.js. On a Docker container.
  - charlieflowers 13y ago
    And definitely programmed in Go.
  - aryastark 13y ago
    they must announce it runs on AWS.
thrillgore 13y ago
I can't wait to hear how Teamsters will take this news.
joshdance 13y ago
Not super useful. Of course UPS will say, ya we are looking at drones too.
chadwickthebold 13y ago
I think the Doge meme at the top perfectly summarizes the discussion and usefulness of 'Amazon Prime Air'.
downer92 13y ago
Seriously? They used the Doge meme? Why would you do that? This is why we can't have nice things.

37 points by akrymski 13y ago

Who isn't? This Drone thing(for me they are RC helis, but let's not argue about that.) is looking more and more like a PR stunt than anything else.

danielweber 13y ago

Cheek is so far in tongue that it got swallowed. UPS already has drones, they are called people, and they work pretty well. UPS will go to a driverless (or remote-controlled) truck with a human in it to run packages to doors before they do a truck (human-driven or otherwise) with drones launching from it.

6cxs2hd6 13y ago
Although the human drones do work pretty well, flying drones will be able to ring the doorbell and run away much faster. Seriously, I wish all the organizations with a holiday season PR problem would issue one, joint "look at this waving hand" press release. Microsoft will deliver more Surface by drone! The US HHS will Berlin Airlift insurance forms to homes across the nation! Delta will deliver your lost luggage to your hotel by drone! &c. I'm sure CBS "News" will promote those, too. These days, they believe anything. /headdesk

nswanberg 13y ago

Sadly the article just quotes a Verge article (http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/3/5169878/ups-is-researching-its-own-delivery-drones-to-compete-with-amazons http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/3/5169878/ups-is-researching...) which itself just quotes some anonymous people at UPS, and then has a couple of people's reactions to the rumors. So not very interesting. I guess the Techcrunch article adds some predictable jokes and a meme illustration, leaving us to ponder the idea of what our grandparents would think about this article--premise, illustration, and all. Or better yet, the idea of our grandparents being shown this article in 1963 by some future-man. The notion of a future flying delivery robot would have been passe--it's the illustration that would have blown their minds.

pit 13y ago
Welcome to ad-supported content!
blisterpeanuts 13y ago
UPS also now appears to be interested in replacing its reliable army of brown-shorted carriers with repurposed evil mindless deathbots. This is one of the reasons I avoid TechCrunch, which appears to be a sensationalist/gossip-mongering type of opinion platform pandering to teenagers, rather than a true tech news organization. Previously they had an article on what they called the uselessness of near-field communication (NFC) devices, even to the point of redefining the initials as "Nobody F--king Cares" (my obfuscation, not theirs). Really? I do care.
- esrauch 13y ago
  To be fair, no one else cares. What percentage of those NFC supporting services do you think have ever used it? I would be surprised if it was even 1%.
  - blisterpeanuts 13y ago
    Probably. But for vertical market and internal applications (building access, inventory control, time tracking), NFC is getting a lot of attention. I suspect it won't achieve a mass market for a few years, if ever, given Apple's utter lack of interest and lack of a killer application. Plus, QR codes are cheaper to use, albeit read-only.
    - esrauch 13y ago
      I wouldn't exactly hold up QR codes as a successful technology either, in the US at least.

DanielBMarkham 13y ago

"...The delivery drones will block out the sun, and all will be plunged into darkness. On the bright side, we'll get our Kindles in record time..." Well hey, as long as the NSA is not involved, I don't think there's a downside here. [Obviously a send-up of the publicity stunts we're seeing that try to pass for tech news lately]

ck2 13y ago

insert company name wants free news coverage for using drones. So drones for now are kinda silly. But what about self-driving cars? Instead of half hour delivery, be more realistic like twice a day coverage a city (instead of for example UPS arriving 8pm at my door).

potatolicious 13y ago
You can't really have an unmanned delivery truck. The truck can't put the package at your door, ring your doorbell, or collect a signature. I suspect the limiting factor in twice-a-day deliveries is labor cost.
- swalsh 13y ago
  You could take one of those 7/11 cabinets where you scan a bar code to open it, and put it in a truck. Then an automated system calls, and asks where you are (i'm at my office xyz fake street) the car shows up around an agreed upon window, then calls you. You walk out to the truck, pick up your item, and it goes to the next person. I would pay extra for that because I hate it when they leave a note because i'm getting my pants on.
- jerf 13y ago
  For this reason, I think this whole drone thing is silly. By the time this is economically practical, you'll be better off with a self-driving car and a secondary ground delivery robot. Adding the complication of flinging them through the air isn't worth it. (It may actually simplify the programming, which is probably why we're talking about this at all, but regardless of how great the programming is, it's just not going to be as safe to have these flying through the air, loaded with kinetic energy, through low-level airspace, as it will for them to be on the ground, rolling along, safely.)
  - stevesearer 13y ago
    A fleet of drones flying through the air is a silly concept in my city where buildings cannot be more than 3 stories high as to not block the views.

codfrantic 13y ago

http://www.waterstones.com/blog/2013/12/introducing-o-w-l-s/ http://www.waterstones.com/blog/2013/12/introducing-o-w-l-s/ is much nicer..

bruceboughton 13y ago

If UPS want to one-up Amazon, they should announce they will be 3D printing their drones and choosing flight paths using Big Data.

jdiez17 13y ago
And crunching all of this Big Data in The Cloud. Using Node.js. On a Docker container.
- charlieflowers 13y ago
  And definitely programmed in Go.
- aryastark 13y ago
  they must announce it runs on AWS.

thrillgore 13y ago

I can't wait to hear how Teamsters will take this news.

joshdance 13y ago

Not super useful. Of course UPS will say, ya we are looking at drones too.

chadwickthebold 13y ago

I think the Doge meme at the top perfectly summarizes the discussion and usefulness of 'Amazon Prime Air'.

downer92 13y ago

Seriously? They used the Doge meme? Why would you do that? This is why we can't have nice things.