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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

#21

Post by icebraining »

oh_sigh wrote: post #10
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?

100 years ago, you would have said "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 crackerboxes delivered faster?"

And they would have been right, which is why cities are now (finally) trying to curb that plague.

I suggest a free-market approach: let these companies purchase the noise rights of each affected inhabitant. Then Coase can decide if having a crackerboxer two hours sooner is worth the cost.

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

#22

Post by mikeash »

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.

Trading off one car for one drone would result in a massive increase in noise. To be a win, you'd need each drone to replace hundreds or thousands of cars, and right now the equation is the other way around.

Cars are getting quieter all the time, too. Tire noise already dominates for most vehicles at city speeds, and EVs improve the picture even further. Diesel trucks are often pretty noise, but they're mild compared to a drone, and electric trucks will drastically cut down on noise.

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

#24

Post by oh_sigh »

icebraining wrote: post #21
oh_sigh wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100 years ago, you would have said "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 crackerboxes delivered faster?"

And they would have been right, which is why cities are now (finally) trying to curb that plague. I suggest a free-market approach: let these companies purchase the noise rights of each affected inhabitant. Then Coase can decide if having a crackerboxer two hours sooner is worth the cost.

Cities aren't cracking down on cars because of noise, they are cracking down because they are a very poor use of limited space.

I'm curious if you think people who are,say, proselytizing on the sidewalk should need to buy noise rights from people who can hear them as well?

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

#25

Post by oh_sigh »

fenwick67 wrote: post #23

All this drone delivery stuff is theatre until they start building obstacle detection and avoidance into them. Yes, drones can take off from point A, then fly up, over to point B, and land. We already knew this.

Even modern consumer drones have obstacle detection and avoidance built in

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

#26

Post by scrumbledober »

saosebastiao wrote: post #14
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 would replace a single vehicle with dozens, if not hundreds of drones, all traveling longer distances than that single vehicle.

If we take the example of a delivery truck full of many packages, it seems to me that each drone would travel a shorter distance to their single destination than the truck that had many destinations.

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

#27

Post by Animats »

That's the reverse of Mercedes' previous robot delivery scheme. They did a test with Starship Technologies delivery robots, where a van was filled up with the robots, it went somewhere, and the robots fanned out to deliver things. That would make sense for dense areas like apartment buildings and offices, once you get doors and elevators to cooperate.

This new test delivers stuff by drone from a distribution center to the vans, which then make local deliveries with humans. That seems backwards. The drones are doing the heavy lifting, something trucks do very well.

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

#28

Post by njarboe »

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?

Automatic pilot for a flying drone from A to B is much easier than one that moves on streets or sidewalks, but I hope we don't let these flying drones cover our cities with noise. If automatic cars work out, maybe a system of quiet, electric trucks that stop at your house/apartment and then a flying drone from truck to the front/back porch (or open widow? That would be cool for condos/apts) would not add much more noise to the urban environment.
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