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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

#31

Post by mrfusion »

jacquesm wrote: post #20
mrfusion wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Interesting. Seems like some birds can lift a lot of weight though like a hawk carrying a rabbit.

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

#33

Post by semi-extrinsic »

totally wrote: post #30

What's the failure mode for quadcopters, can these land safely with loss of one motor? Definition of "safely" would ideally consider human casualties.

Well, this happened a couple of years ago in a World Cup skiing event.

https://youtu.be/xeviAWB0i4Y

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

#34

Post by goldfeld »

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).

So progress is hell on earth and technocrats are cheering it up?

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

#35

Post by semi-extrinsic »

mikeash wrote: post #22
d0lph wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Not to mention in most places, highways (the places where cars make the most noise) are far away or acoustically shielded from where there are people.

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

#36

Post by totally »

semi-extrinsic wrote: post #33
totally wrote: post #30

What's the failure mode for quadcopters, can these land safely with loss of one motor? Definition of "safely" would ideally consider human casualties.

Well, this happened a couple of years ago in a World Cup skiing event. https://youtu.be/xeviAWB0i4Y

That's an incredible link, thanks for that.

That someone would be skiing, whatever, 100 miles per hour and might then die because of a falling electronic lawnmower really highlights seen vs unseen risks.

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

#37

Post by jacquesm »

mrfusion wrote: post #31
jacquesm wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Interesting. Seems like some birds can lift a lot of weight though like a hawk carrying a rabbit.

Yes, but for a given weight in flight so far nature seems to be doing much better than batteries or fuel when it comes to carrying capacity. That's not to say that will not change, but for now biology has the edge, especially when you compound the problem such as limit the noise emitted.

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

#38

Post by vkou »

scrumbledober wrote: post #26
saosebastiao wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

When a delivery truck stops in front of my apartment building, it delivers a dozen packages.

A drone would have to make a dozen trips to do this.

I have to say, the noise generated by the UPS truck stopping-and-going on my street is... Insignificant compared to even a single consumer drone buzzing overhead.

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

#39

Post by michrassena »

I can imagine drone delivery's an effective solution to the last mile problem for automated delivery? Have a self-driving truck navigate through a neighborhood, the drone takes off with the package and delivers it to the doorstep and returns to the truck. The truck can continue driving around as drones rejoin it down the road.

Now we have both pieces of the equation: how to get to the house without paying a driver, and how to get to the porch without paying someone to walk and carry.

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

#40

Post by CamelCaseName »

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.

You can buy $300 drones with obstacle detection / avoidance. Hell, I even recall a service on reddit where someone let you fly his drone around New Zealand and it was completely unmonitored because the drone would not let you crash or hit anything.
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