191–200 of 228 posts
For example, how many people would have to hear the drone zipping by to deliver someone some hair scrunchies or paperclips or whatever? The asymmetry makes no sense to me long before you get into the other issues.
I have a hard time seeing how drones would be compatible with any society that places any value on silence or has any stance against noise pollution. For example, how many people would have to hear the drone zipping by to deliver someone some hair scrunchies or paperclips or whatever? The asymmetry makes no sense to me long before you get into the other issues.
Long story short, It's the FAA's fault. Initially they said, "no, you can't do that" because there are no regulations for that. With pressure from companies, the FAA took years to create the rules to make drone deliveries legal. Finally there is some regulatory framework. Drones have to be specifically designed and manufactured to pass the FAA's certification program. We've all seen capable drones from Amazon's marke…
In fairness, if you've only seen it in marketing materials, you haven't seen it.
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The 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…
And fixed-wing aircraft are substantially more efficient than rotorcraft.
A paraglider drone with a tiny parachute would be more efficient than any 3/4/6/8 motor drone copter
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Drone deliveries substitute for cars and trucks, which kill 20 pedestrians every day in the US.
That's the stat for all cars and trucks, but drone delivery isn't going to get commuters off the road. How many deaths are due to package delivery vehicles? More specifically, how many are due to the vehicles that will actually be replaced by drones? That's the number to beat, and even a single collision with an airplane would most likely make up the yearly allotment before we even get into "package falls on someone'…
Planes fly at much higher altitudes than delivery drones, so the only collision worries would be near airports. The FAA already bans drones near airports and requires special authorization to fly a drone within miles of major airports. Even if you get approval, you can't exceed 400 feet above ground level.
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2 is surprising as that’s the opposite of where I’d expect delivery drones to be useful. You don’t need them in dense urban environments where a stocked truck offloads inventory with low mileage. You want them in rural areas where as the crow flies makes a difference and it’s expensive to have a truck driving about sparsely populated areas.
I'd like to see someone try integrating them into the delivery trucks. Roof mount it, make it easy to load from the back storage area, and have it auto charge. That way drivers can choose to hand off smaller packages to it and launch when they are delivering close by.
Drone delivery is alive and well - and high volume from my company Manna Drone Delivery. Doing about 300 flights a day now in DUblin, and expanding soon to 1,000 a day. Video of a weekends worth of deliveries here-: https://youtu.be/0lFT_K47Pa4
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I suspect this still only works if you can utilize the capacity and have simultaneous deliveries, which would required a cluster of deliveries, thus likely not good for rural areas.
>I suspect this still only works if you can utilize the capacity and have simultaneous deliveries You can still eliminate inefficient stop-and-go driving for some fraction of stops (ie not U-turns), and (most important) the time-wasting "last 100 feet" walk. Sure it's not as superior in rural areas vs suburban, but with low enough overhead you could still beat a traditional truck. Naturally if the drone gear cost mil…
Can you share why you think it makes sense cost wise?
I don't remember where, but I read a lengthy comment from someone in the industry which said there were two main things preventing delivery drones from being a viable market: 1. FAA regulations - delivery drones can't operate within X miles of an airport (technically they can, but it requires a much stricter degree of certification and compliance nobody wants to bother with) 2. Drones need a landing space, so people…
75% of blood deliveries in Rwanda outside Kigali are done via drone (flyzipline.com)
This seems like the kind of high importance deliveries that drones could be utilized for, not brining me some munchies at 3am.