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Wanted: Cofounder for YC S19. Robotic Tunnel Delivery of Groceries/food/packages

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Re: Wanted: Cofounder for YC S19. Robotic Tunnel Delivery of Groceries/food/packages

#11

Post by maxander »

tuberelay wrote: post #8
tuberelay wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Air drones - loud, need to be pretty big and noisy to lift larger payloads eg. groceries. In order to cover use cases of food/grocery/package delivery across a city and surrounding suburbs there would be a constant stream of high powered drones whirring through major areas and around streets/footpaths. I don't think this would be acceptable to the public at scale. Self-driving footpath size delivery vehicles - people…

A bit more about the economics of this: Assuming each person in a city has: - a postal/courier package delivered every 2 days - a grocery delivery every 3 days - a takeaway/food delivery every 4 days This means on average overall each person gets 1 delivery per day. Assuming delivery cost of $2 per delivery, this means in a city of 1 million people there is $2 million daily revenue for operators of this, or $700 mill…

What percentage of the city would have easy access to tunnel endpoints? It's a pretty difficult last-mile problem.

At least in the short term, a good bet would be funneling stock to retail stores. In lots of neighborhoods, big trucks parked on narrow streets to offload cargo is a big problem.

Re: Wanted: Cofounder for YC S19. Robotic Tunnel Delivery of Groceries/food/packages

#12

Post by macp »

reaperducer wrote: post #10

It would be interesting if you could revive this delivery method. Chicago still has its old delivery tunnel network beneath downtown. It’s not in great shape. The Palmer House Hilton uses its section to grow mushrooms for its restaurant. My father used to talk about delivery networks beneath Manhattan that he used. But I think those may have been pneumatic.

^^^ This. Or, build into the subway lines. Avoids drilling costs for early stages.

Re: Wanted: Cofounder for YC S19. Robotic Tunnel Delivery of Groceries/food/packages

#13

Post by macp »

tuberelay wrote: post #6
macp wrote: post #3

What's the advantage of tunnels as compared to self-driving ground vehicles or air drones?

Air drones - loud, need to be pretty big and noisy to lift larger payloads eg. groceries. In order to cover use cases of food/grocery/package delivery across a city and surrounding suburbs there would be a constant stream of high powered drones whirring through major areas and around streets/footpaths. I don't think this would be acceptable to the public at scale. Self-driving footpath size delivery vehicles - people…

Why underground? Could it work in above ground pipes? How big would be the packages and robotic vehicles?

Packages, grocery, and food bring different requirements in terms of delivery speed and size, which could lead to different solutions--some easier to address than others. What is the pain point and most desperate customers for each?

Re: Wanted: Cofounder for YC S19. Robotic Tunnel Delivery of Groceries/food/packages

#14

Post by gammateam »

> Happy to move to SF for YC

(or already lives in SF / Bay Area, I thought it was weird that you wrote this twice, I wonder if there is a preconception about people that already live in SF undertoning this, like already busy or already moved for some other 'change the world' trope)

Re: Wanted: Cofounder for YC S19. Robotic Tunnel Delivery of Groceries/food/packages

#15

Post by heyjudy »

Not to be a Debbie Downer, but to think critically and not fall in love with an idea more than reality. TBH, sounds capex intensive and there must be reason(s) why it was abandoned, i.e., cost to hookup areas and inflexibility of rigid, expensive infrastructure deployed such that it's not scalable for the profit that it could generate... if Manhattan, HK and Tokyo don't use it anymore, why now?

Re: Wanted: Cofounder for YC S19. Robotic Tunnel Delivery of Groceries/food/packages

#16

Post by heyjudy »

SamReidHughes wrote: post #2

If you can pull this off please wire everybody up for fiber while you're at it.

There's plenty of dark fiber in numerous metros thanks to the dotcom times, the main issue is last mile premise deployment and the cost of labor involved. You can't miracle away those costs to miraculously hook everyone up without spending billions sans a profit model.

Re: Wanted: Cofounder for YC S19. Robotic Tunnel Delivery of Groceries/food/packages

#18

Post by dgarud »

Couple of comments:

1) What is the size of the pipes you are considering? Will it be big enough for humans to get into for maintenance - I was thinking what would happen if a delivery vehicle breaks down or a small animal gets into a tunnel.

2) Have you considered small blimps as delivery vehicles? The technology has got considerably better and should be less noisy than drones.

Re: Wanted: Cofounder for YC S19. Robotic Tunnel Delivery of Groceries/food/packages

#19

Post by [deleted] »

dgarud wrote: post #18

Couple of comments: 1) What is the size of the pipes you are considering? Will it be big enough for humans to get into for maintenance - I was thinking what would happen if a delivery vehicle breaks down or a small animal gets into a tunnel. 2) Have you considered small blimps as delivery vehicles? The technology has got considerably better and should be less noisy than drones.

[deleted]

Re: Wanted: Cofounder for YC S19. Robotic Tunnel Delivery of Groceries/food/packages

#20

Post by [deleted] »

heyjudy wrote: post #15

Not to be a Debbie Downer, but to think critically and not fall in love with an idea more than reality. TBH, sounds capex intensive and there must be reason(s) why it was abandoned, i.e., cost to hookup areas and inflexibility of rigid, expensive infrastructure deployed such that it's not scalable for the profit that it could generate... if Manhattan, HK and Tokyo don't use it anymore, why now?

[deleted]
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