11–20 of 32 posts
They are being too timid in their thinking and designs. All they need is the driverless "engine cab" and then a transformer-like packing of drones to form the rest of the vehicle. It arrives in the neighborhood of delivery and then all the drones take off, deliver, they return, and reassemble into the driverless delivery truck.
I blame them for wanting to achieve a working product rather than a really cool concept.
I believe oneway drones are next so that the van doesn't have to stop moving. Then upgrade to a truck on a highway - just keep launching as the truck is maintaining 55-65 mph. Unit lands in your yard. When you get home, Remove your item, fold up the power unit, recycle the cardboard/plastic components and stick the reusable portion of the unit in your mailbox. Unit is self addressed and postage included to go back to…
Doesn't that turn the delivery problem into an exactly mirrored pickup problem? Getting the drones back would be about as much work as getting the package to you.
I believe oneway drones are next so that the van doesn't have to stop moving. Then upgrade to a truck on a highway - just keep launching as the truck is maintaining 55-65 mph. Unit lands in your yard. When you get home, Remove your item, fold up the power unit, recycle the cardboard/plastic components and stick the reusable portion of the unit in your mailbox. Unit is self addressed and postage included to go back to…
Doesn't that turn the delivery problem into an exactly mirrored pickup problem? Getting the drones back would be about as much work as getting the package to you.
I believe oneway drones are next so that the van doesn't have to stop moving. Then upgrade to a truck on a highway - just keep launching as the truck is maintaining 55-65 mph. Unit lands in your yard. When you get home, Remove your item, fold up the power unit, recycle the cardboard/plastic components and stick the reusable portion of the unit in your mailbox. Unit is self addressed and postage included to go back to…
Doesn't that turn the delivery problem into an exactly mirrored pickup problem? Getting the drones back would be about as much work as getting the package to you.
I believe oneway drones are next so that the van doesn't have to stop moving. Then upgrade to a truck on a highway - just keep launching as the truck is maintaining 55-65 mph. Unit lands in your yard. When you get home, Remove your item, fold up the power unit, recycle the cardboard/plastic components and stick the reusable portion of the unit in your mailbox. Unit is self addressed and postage included to go back to…
Doesn't that turn the delivery problem into an exactly mirrored pickup problem? Getting the drones back would be about as much work as getting the package to you.
I believe oneway drones are next so that the van doesn't have to stop moving. Then upgrade to a truck on a highway - just keep launching as the truck is maintaining 55-65 mph. Unit lands in your yard. When you get home, Remove your item, fold up the power unit, recycle the cardboard/plastic components and stick the reusable portion of the unit in your mailbox. Unit is self addressed and postage included to go back to…
Vans full of packages to be delivered are the aircraft carrier and vans that are empty or low on packages represent the mid-air refuel because they can swap out the battery/fuel. Drones don't have to return to same van, but the closest, or whatever optimization you are looking for.
Minimize the movement and energy required for heavier, more energy intensive components (the aircraft carrier) while making the most of the drones capabilities.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If I had to get to a mailbox to return something, I would refuse to order from that company.
There is this company called Netflix...
I believe oneway drones are next so that the van doesn't have to stop moving. Then upgrade to a truck on a highway - just keep launching as the truck is maintaining 55-65 mph. Unit lands in your yard. When you get home, Remove your item, fold up the power unit, recycle the cardboard/plastic components and stick the reusable portion of the unit in your mailbox. Unit is self addressed and postage included to go back to…
I can see this being useful in various places if the landing question is sorted out, and I think the main one of those is the 'disaster' scenario. Plenty of rural situations would benefit too: you don't have to send a van up a narrow unpaved road, or on a circuitous route, just send a drone over the hills (can this handle non-LOS?) or across the fields. If roads are closed due to snow, you may be able to deliver from the main cleared road (assuming the weather has cleared up enough for the drone).
Some of the Scottish islands are within the one-way range of this drone from the mainland, which might be useful for mail deliveries. Rockets were once tried for this purpose: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_mail
Santa Claus-chute for things to slide down?
Helicopter landing pad in the front yard?
How can we sort the packages/letters into their individual receptacles?
This could save US mail carriers a lot of effort.