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Google Wing will deliver to about 100 homes in Canberra

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Google Wing will deliver to about 100 homes in Canberra

#141

Post by learc83 »

teraflop wrote: post #126
ProblemFactory wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Current drone batteries are a much higher fire risk than a hydrogen blimp.

It's worth noting that hydrogen is orders of magnitude more energy-dense, by mass, than lithium-ion batteries. As a benchmark: the DJI Phantom weighs roughly 1kg, and its battery can store about 80kJ of electrical energy. I found a NASA study [1] which estimated that the energy released when a li-ion battery combusts is roughly 2x the usable energy capacity. So let's say that a battery fire would release 160kJ of ene…

Also worth nothing that a single kilogram of gasoline would release 4 times as much energy as the hypothetical hydrogen balloon.

Re: Google Wing will deliver to about 100 homes in Canberra

#142

Post by learc83 »

neaden wrote: post #99
learc83 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hydrogen is lighter than helium, easy to produce, and if you're talking smallish blimp with no people on board, it's not particularly dangerous.

I think having what essentially would be small robot controlled fire-bombs flying through the skies would be a tough sell. Even if you managed to make them as safe as possible it's not exactly the kind of thing people would be eager to approve.

What do you think gasoline powered drones are? Agreed that hydrogen is perceived as being much more dangerous than it is because of the Hindenburg disaster.

But (and I have no reason to think that this is true) if it turned out to be commercially viable, I'm sure that perception could be changed.

Re: Google Wing will deliver to about 100 homes in Canberra

#143

Post by caf »

learc83 wrote: post #140
caf wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

9MJ is roughly 2kg of TNT. I'm not so sure that kind of energy release would be entirely harmless.

A kg of gasoline is about 40MJ. The speed at which the energy is released is the important factor, not the total energy.

Sure, and the speed at which a cloud of hydrogen-oxygen will release energy after ignition is very rapid indeed.

Re: Google Wing will deliver to about 100 homes in Canberra

#144

Post by v7p1Qbt1im »

slashink wrote: post #68
tdhoot wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn’t repeating this trope on every Google related topic get old? We get it, they cancel projects. Hahaha?

I’d agree that it would have gotten old if this was an isolated past of Google but fact is that Google shuts downs products left and right even today, recently Google Inbox. People will keep making fun of Google for this as long as Google keep throwing products at the wall that they don’t intend to keep supporting.

Except, you know, this is Wing, a separate entity.

Besides. It almost sounds like many people would like them to stop releasing products all together. Market research is not yet at a point where you can predict if something will be 100% successful.

Re: Google Wing will deliver to about 100 homes in Canberra

#145

Post by v7p1Qbt1im »

gordon_freeman wrote: post #130

I'm wondering what exactly Google will use this home delivery by drone tech for? Their Google Express service is nice but it's not their main business and this makes a lot more sense if it was launched by e-commerce giant like Amazon. I'm just wondering how Google will convert this tech in a viable business?

The main area Assistant is worse at compared to Alexa is shopping. They kind of need to have their own e-commerce platform. You could (eventually) combine that with drone delivery.

Re: Google Wing will deliver to about 100 homes in Canberra

#146

Post by v7p1Qbt1im »

SilverbackCoder wrote: post #70
justtopost wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When in college, I once delivered to a 3rd story balcony via ladder. Anything is possible if you hire the right people. Unfortunately, this service requires a large spot in your yard. Sorry apartment dwellers.

People with the yard space will become hubs (for a relatively small fee) for apartment dwellers. Or, the drones will deliver to the roofs of the apartment blocks instead.

Or maybe windows at some point?

Re: Google Wing will deliver to about 100 homes in Canberra

#147

Post by anoncake »

zaroth wrote: post #113
anoncake wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is no excuse for making cities louder than they need to be.

An available substitute is a great reason to allow a particular service to not be provided in a particular location. If rural environments weren’t accessible it becomes much more important for cities to be more quiet. Because rural environments are available, cities can trade some silence for some pretty extraordinary economic advantages. Building skyscrapers and moving millions of people around every day is noisy wo…

Sure. But we still should consider both sides of the equation. Even in a city, not every loss of silence is worth every gain of productivity or other city advantages.

Also, in this case we are not exactly talking about Manhattan, but about houses with gardens in Canberra.

Re: Google Wing will deliver to about 100 homes in Canberra

#148

Post by learc83 »

caf wrote: post #143
learc83 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A kg of gasoline is about 40MJ. The speed at which the energy is released is the important factor, not the total energy.

Sure, and the speed at which a cloud of hydrogen-oxygen will release energy after ignition is very rapid indeed.

The theoretical maximum detonation velocity of a hydrogen /oxygen mixture is significantly less than TNT.

You're also not going to get anywhere near the theoretical maximum detonation velocity if it ignites because of a leak.

My point is comparing hydrogen to TNT is very misleading.

Re: Google Wing will deliver to about 100 homes in Canberra

#149

Post by falcor84 »

v7p1Qbt1im wrote: post #144
slashink wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d agree that it would have gotten old if this was an isolated past of Google but fact is that Google shuts downs products left and right even today, recently Google Inbox. People will keep making fun of Google for this as long as Google keep throwing products at the wall that they don’t intend to keep supporting.

Except, you know, this is Wing, a separate entity. Besides. It almost sounds like many people would like them to stop releasing products all together. Market research is not yet at a point where you can predict if something will be 100% successful.

I think the problem here is with Google's definition of success - they're cancelling products with many millions of satisfied users.

I'm not saying I have a perfect solution that would satisfy everyone. But, in the case of Reader or Inbox, for example, I think that they could keep the business going with about a couple of cents from every user. I feel that a company with as much power as Google should really do more to stay on its users' good sides.

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