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An underground delivery train comes to the Atlanta suburbs

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Re: An underground delivery train comes to the Atlanta suburbs

#91

Post by jstarfish »

skywhopper wrote: post #71

What a terrible idea. The pilot only has one pipe that goes between two locations. There’s no indication of how they would scale this to actually be useful for local delivery. And maintenance when the trolleys break down would be a nightmare. Just like the Boring Company tunnels, the folks who dream this stuff up don’t think about how it can scale beyond a demo. They just figure they’ll figure it out later, but real-…

> The pilot only has one pipe that goes between two locations. There’s no indication of how they would scale this to actually be useful for local delivery.

This must be the same group that pitched MARTA.

Re: An underground delivery train comes to the Atlanta suburbs

#92

Post by Deprecate9151 »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #86

I always wondered why things like this weren't more prevalent, and the only answer I could come to was "jobs". That is, given the networks of underground infrastructure that already exist, it seems like this would be totally plausible for pretty much any midsize+ city to build this out to replace all conventional mail delivery (that is, basically anything that can fit in a standard size mailbox). But that would resul…

I think for the pharmacists its simply economics. It's cheaper to have 3 or 4 pharmacists and a bunch of much lower payed techs on staff to do the work manually then develop and maintain automation while complying with existing regulations. I know some hospitals have automatic medication dispensing, so I'm assuming they have much higher volume where it makes sense.

Re: An underground delivery train comes to the Atlanta suburbs

#93

Post by imtringued »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #86

I always wondered why things like this weren't more prevalent, and the only answer I could come to was "jobs". That is, given the networks of underground infrastructure that already exist, it seems like this would be totally plausible for pretty much any midsize+ city to build this out to replace all conventional mail delivery (that is, basically anything that can fit in a standard size mailbox). But that would resul…

Underground infrastructure is expensive. If anything gets stuck you are screwed. The most inefficient part of parcel delivery isn't the vehicle, it's having the delivery guy wait for the recipient to open the door for them. You could easily solve this problem by putting parcel lockers outside the building.

Re: An underground delivery train comes to the Atlanta suburbs

#94

Post by mschuster91 »

black6 wrote: post #84
mschuster91 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maintaining pressurized grids is hard enough for the systems in use in hospitals, and any small failure in a pressurized pipe has the potential for a huge disaster.

Chemical plants, on the whole, seem to manage pressurized systems quite well.

Yeah, but these tend to be enclosed inside of a factory, with no external factors like cable-seeking machines (i.e. your average backhoe) or terrorists to take into account.

Re: An underground delivery train comes to the Atlanta suburbs

#95

Post by keyboard_slap »

delegate wrote: post #28

Anyone who played Factorio knows that belts, especially underground ones, are the thing.

To a point. Their usefulness is typically eclipsed by trains, drones, and direct insertion in the late game.

Let's extend the metaphor. If you're trying to move a small, intermittent supply of products from around 1km away to your base, do you build an underground belt (this startup's gadgetbahn) or connect it to your rail network (existing roads and sidewalks)?

Re: An underground delivery train comes to the Atlanta suburbs

#96

Post by simbolit »

bluGill wrote: post #87
01100011 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Instead of using suction, which can be unreliable, Pipedream uses electricity to run a small battery-powered autonomous vehicle This.. has to be a joke? Surely they don't believe a "battery-powered autonomous vehicle" is more reliable than a pneumatic tube network?

Seems like it would be to me. So long as you monitor your battery charge you know the vehicle will get there and it can tolerate many imperfections in the tube. Pneumatics need a tight seal to the tube and thus cannot tolerate imperfections.

> So long as you monitor your battery charge you know the vehicle will get there

ahem, a BEV has __a lot__ more failure points than just "empty battery"...

sending a complex machine down a tube will _always_ carry the risk of the complex machine reading down. pneumatic tube "vehicles" are simple, they can not break down.

I am not an expert, I don't know which one is better or more reliable, but your claim that once you monitor battery charge, everything is hunky dory is wrong.

Re: An underground delivery train comes to the Atlanta suburbs

#98

Post by keyboard_slap »

What problem is this system trying to solve? It seems to be, in this initial deployment, that the office park is too far away from the restaurants its employees want to visit, compelling them to drive there. I feel like a better solution would be permitting denser and mixed-use development, so employees can walk to their favorite restaurants on the ground floor instead of driving >1km to them or paying for a delivery tunnel.

Re: An underground delivery train comes to the Atlanta suburbs

#99

Post by SoftTalker »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #86

I always wondered why things like this weren't more prevalent, and the only answer I could come to was "jobs". That is, given the networks of underground infrastructure that already exist, it seems like this would be totally plausible for pretty much any midsize+ city to build this out to replace all conventional mail delivery (that is, basically anything that can fit in a standard size mailbox). But that would resul…

The costs and complexity of working underground are huge. Most cities have fairly poor documentation and location information on any underground utilites that are more than 40-50 years old. Locally here we have a big project going on to expand municipal fiber. The contractors are every week hitting water lines, gas lines, or sewer lines that aren't exactly where they "are supposed to be" I can only imagine the final costs will vastly exceed estimates when all this damage is taken into account.

Re: An underground delivery train comes to the Atlanta suburbs

#100

Post by simbolit »

chris_va wrote: post #5

I'm just waiting for this: https://idlewords.com/2007/04/the_alameda_weehawken_burrito_...

strong recommendation for everything Maciej Cegłowski has ever written.

especially the talks are very much worth your while: https://idlewords.com/talks/

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