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My initial thought for self-driving delivery trucks was to combine the two. A truck drives itself to your house. a quadcopter flies out of the truck and leaves

My initial thought for self-driving delivery trucks was to combine the two. A truck drives itself to your house. a quadcopter flies out of the truck and leaves the package on your stoop.

djKianoosh 13y ago
that's exactly my comment from yesterday.. basically use the truck as a base station for the drones. would just have to figure out how many drones vs how many packages are optimal.
marveller 13y ago
Yes, that really makes sense so it can cover more distance.
randomdata 13y ago
However, they are aiming for delivery in under 30 minutes. The last time we tried delivering packages by air, road travel times were considered too long[1], and things have probably only gotten worse. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBVPG0XLbv0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBVPG0XLbv0
aryastark 13y ago
a large number of apartments/condos do not have an outside stoop. Which makes this whole drone thing a bit impractical. UPS already has enough trouble opening a lobby door or getting past a security gate. The only practical thing I see happening is scheduled deliveries within a certain 15-30min window and having the drone text you when the package is there so you can physically go and retrieve it out on the street/sidewalk. Of course, the problem then becomes having a drone hovering and waiting while the person comes outside. And obviously that will cut into the profit of the delivery service, as you have a drone waiting on people to get out of the shower and stupid things like that.
- randomdata 13y ago
  Amazon suggested this was intended to deliver within 30 minutes after the order. You are presumably, barring some kind of emergency, not going to be leaving your place after ordering this service. I don't think the intent of this is to replace the stuff you traditionally order through the mail/courier services over the span of days.
- frandroid 13y ago
  Well then you don't need a drone. If you get texted that the delivery person is about to arrive at your place 20 mins before they get there, you can grab the package directly from the delivery person.

My initial thought for self-driving delivery trucks was to combine the two. A truck drives itself to your house. a quadcopter flies out of the truck and leaves the package on your stoop.

djKianoosh 13y ago

that's exactly my comment from yesterday.. basically use the truck as a base station for the drones. would just have to figure out how many drones vs how many packages are optimal.

marveller 13y ago

Yes, that really makes sense so it can cover more distance.

randomdata 13y ago

However, they are aiming for delivery in under 30 minutes. The last time we tried delivering packages by air, road travel times were considered too long[1], and things have probably only gotten worse. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBVPG0XLbv0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBVPG0XLbv0

aryastark 13y ago

a large number of apartments/condos do not have an outside stoop. Which makes this whole drone thing a bit impractical. UPS already has enough trouble opening a lobby door or getting past a security gate. The only practical thing I see happening is scheduled deliveries within a certain 15-30min window and having the drone text you when the package is there so you can physically go and retrieve it out on the street/sidewalk. Of course, the problem then becomes having a drone hovering and waiting while the person comes outside. And obviously that will cut into the profit of the delivery service, as you have a drone waiting on people to get out of the shower and stupid things like that.

randomdata 13y ago
Amazon suggested this was intended to deliver within 30 minutes after the order. You are presumably, barring some kind of emergency, not going to be leaving your place after ordering this service. I don't think the intent of this is to replace the stuff you traditionally order through the mail/courier services over the span of days.
frandroid 13y ago
Well then you don't need a drone. If you get texted that the delivery person is about to arrive at your place 20 mins before they get there, you can grab the package directly from the delivery person.