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Mercedes-Benz conducting the biggest test using drones to ship everyday items

bloomberg.com

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Re: Mercedes-Benz conducting the biggest test using drones to ship everyday items

#11

Post by jacquesm »

tachyonbeam wrote: post #7
H1Supreme wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Additionally, how will the drones be secured? A baseball could knock these things out of the air. It's not like with a delivery person where there's a lot of risk involved trying to take a package.

A drone large enough to ship a package will probably not be taken down by a baseball. It's also going to be difficult to throw a baseball at a moving drone. You'd also have to know when the drone is going to come by, because most of the time, they would be flying high, except when near landing. Finally, security cameras.

A drone large enough to ship a package will kill you when it falls down for whatever reason.

I don't see this whole concept working simply due to (re)liability.

Re: Mercedes-Benz conducting the biggest test using drones to ship everyday items

#12

Post by tachyonbeam »

Shivetya wrote: post #9
tachyonbeam wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A drone large enough to ship a package will probably not be taken down by a baseball. It's also going to be difficult to throw a baseball at a moving drone. You'd also have to know when the drone is going to come by, because most of the time, they would be flying high, except when near landing. Finally, security cameras.

well the concern I am curious about how they address it is, how will they route these drones? How high up do they need to be when crossing private property before they are not trespassing. If any have cameras attached how do we verify they only record where appropriate? if routing down existing roadways how do they fare in areas with large numbers of over head wires? my personal concerns from above are trespass and p…

Most drones would likely be carrying low-value items. The risk would probably not be worth it. Each time you try to nab a drone, you are exposing yourself to the risk of being arrested and prosecuted. If security is a huge concern, keep shipping high-value items by people. Program the drones to fly in unpredictable patterns, etc.

Re: Mercedes-Benz conducting the biggest test using drones to ship everyday items

#13

Post by mikeash »

simplyinfinity wrote: post #8
account0099099 wrote: post #2

What is this going to sound like when cities have hundreds of whining drones flying around? Are we just going to have to get used to the noise pollution from the drones so people can get their coffee delivered faster?

What is this going to sound like when cities have hundreds of whining cars driving around? Are we just going to have to get used to the noise pollution from the cars so people can get their coffee delivered faster? ------- This actually might lower the delivery times and delivery cars on the road which is a good thing! Less traffic, less air pollution, faster delivery times, less jobs (not a good thing tho).

It's true that we already deal with annoying vehicular noise, but that's hardly an argument in favor of repeating the same mistakes.

I'm not convinced it would be anything like a net gain. I'm not a fan of car noise, but a delivery truck carrying hundreds of packages makes less noise than a drone too small to even carry one of them.

Hopefully it's possible to make these things much quieter....

Re: Mercedes-Benz conducting the biggest test using drones to ship everyday items

#14

Post by saosebastiao »

simplyinfinity wrote: post #8
account0099099 wrote: post #2

What is this going to sound like when cities have hundreds of whining drones flying around? Are we just going to have to get used to the noise pollution from the drones so people can get their coffee delivered faster?

What is this going to sound like when cities have hundreds of whining cars driving around? Are we just going to have to get used to the noise pollution from the cars so people can get their coffee delivered faster? ------- This actually might lower the delivery times and delivery cars on the road which is a good thing! Less traffic, less air pollution, faster delivery times, less jobs (not a good thing tho).

It would replace a single vehicle with dozens, if not hundreds of drones, all traveling longer distances than that single vehicle.

Re: Mercedes-Benz conducting the biggest test using drones to ship everyday items

#15

Post by d0lph »

mikeash wrote: post #13
simplyinfinity wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is this going to sound like when cities have hundreds of whining cars driving around? Are we just going to have to get used to the noise pollution from the cars so people can get their coffee delivered faster? ------- This actually might lower the delivery times and delivery cars on the road which is a good thing! Less traffic, less air pollution, faster delivery times, less jobs (not a good thing tho).

It's true that we already deal with annoying vehicular noise, but that's hardly an argument in favor of repeating the same mistakes. I'm not convinced it would be anything like a net gain. I'm not a fan of car noise, but a delivery truck carrying hundreds of packages makes less noise than a drone too small to even carry one of them. Hopefully it's possible to make these things much quieter....

True, but imagine if these drones handled food/grocery/retail delivery, the amount of cars on the road would drop immensely. As long as the tradeoff is 1 car -> 1 drone.

Re: Mercedes-Benz conducting the biggest test using drones to ship everyday items

#16

Post by jacquesm »

mikeash wrote: post #13
simplyinfinity wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is this going to sound like when cities have hundreds of whining cars driving around? Are we just going to have to get used to the noise pollution from the cars so people can get their coffee delivered faster? ------- This actually might lower the delivery times and delivery cars on the road which is a good thing! Less traffic, less air pollution, faster delivery times, less jobs (not a good thing tho).

It's true that we already deal with annoying vehicular noise, but that's hardly an argument in favor of repeating the same mistakes. I'm not convinced it would be anything like a net gain. I'm not a fan of car noise, but a delivery truck carrying hundreds of packages makes less noise than a drone too small to even carry one of them. Hopefully it's possible to make these things much quieter....

No, they won't be much quieter. The noise is a function of the shape of the propellors, their diameter and the speed of the air flowing through them. The typical drone blade has to run at 7K rpm in order to just hover the drone, 12K and up to maneuver. That's very much in the audible range and the speed with which the air flows through and the fact that the air flows downwards through them pretty much guarantees a very loud presence.

A couple of these at all times and you'll be ready to start target practice.

Re: Mercedes-Benz conducting the biggest test using drones to ship everyday items

#18

Post by graeme »

d0lph wrote: post #15
mikeash wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's true that we already deal with annoying vehicular noise, but that's hardly an argument in favor of repeating the same mistakes. I'm not convinced it would be anything like a net gain. I'm not a fan of car noise, but a delivery truck carrying hundreds of packages makes less noise than a drone too small to even carry one of them. Hopefully it's possible to make these things much quieter....

True, but imagine if these drones handled food/grocery/retail delivery, the amount of cars on the road would drop immensely. As long as the tradeoff is 1 car -> 1 drone.

You’re assuming nothing else would fill the gap left. It’s not a static system.

Re: Mercedes-Benz conducting the biggest test using drones to ship everyday items

#19

Post by mrfusion »

jacquesm wrote: post #16
mikeash wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's true that we already deal with annoying vehicular noise, but that's hardly an argument in favor of repeating the same mistakes. I'm not convinced it would be anything like a net gain. I'm not a fan of car noise, but a delivery truck carrying hundreds of packages makes less noise than a drone too small to even carry one of them. Hopefully it's possible to make these things much quieter....

No, they won't be much quieter. The noise is a function of the shape of the propellors, their diameter and the speed of the air flowing through them. The typical drone blade has to run at 7K rpm in order to just hover the drone, 12K and up to maneuver. That's very much in the audible range and the speed with which the air flows through and the fact that the air flows downwards through them pretty much guarantees a ve…

We should design them to have owl like wings. Owls fly very quietly.

Re: Mercedes-Benz conducting the biggest test using drones to ship everyday items

#20

Post by jacquesm »

mrfusion wrote: post #19
jacquesm wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they won't be much quieter. The noise is a function of the shape of the propellors, their diameter and the speed of the air flowing through them. The typical drone blade has to run at 7K rpm in order to just hover the drone, 12K and up to maneuver. That's very much in the audible range and the speed with which the air flows through and the fact that the air flows downwards through them pretty much guarantees a ve…

We should design them to have owl like wings. Owls fly very quietly.

You should definitely watch this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVo3wEkyci4

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnR8fDW3Ilo

Also, while birds are really good at using their wings to glide and provide propulsion flapping designs that need to lift much more than their own weight have so far not worked very well. So I don't really see them as viable for packages.

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