DailyDirt: Speedy Deliveries Coming Via Robots
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
The FAA hasn't exactly been quick to figure out how its going to regulate drones, and its current rules are a bit of an arbitrary mess of trying to determine what "commercial use" really means and how to register pilots and/or the UAVs they fly. Still, plenty of projects are moving forward with plans to use (semi-)autonomous robots to deliver packages more efficiently and quickly.- Google's (ok, Alphabet's) Project Wing expects to be a commercial business by 2017 -- delivering packages with low-flying drones. It's still uncertain how these UAVs will get FAA approval by 2017, but if everything goes smoothly (cough!), there could be a low altitude "Class G" airspace specifically for drones in a year or so. [url]
- Starship Technologies, despite its name, is planning to use a 6-wheeled robot on the ground to deliver groceries -- instead of any kind of flying contraption. This robot will be able to haul around 20 pounds of cargo at 4 mph with a range of about 4 miles. That's not exactly impressive, but it doesn't need to worry about flying into anything or getting shot out of the sky. [url]
- Tacocopters are feasible. It's not a matter of technology. All sorts of things can be delivered by multicopters -- mail, ice cream, drink orders -- it's just a matter of how much it's worth it to you to do it (FAA approval, the cost of equipment, logistics, etc). [url]
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Filed Under: class g airspace, commercial use, drones, faa, multicopter, robotics, robots, tacocopter, uav
Companies: alphabet, google, starship technologies
Reader Comments
The First Word
“And now with the FAA slapping down "no fly zones" everywhere and drafting up proposed drone regulations, this proposed 'drone skyway' idea might be just as illusive a target.
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How about delivering some fast broadband?
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The inevitable Hollywood depiction of North Korea taking control of America's tacocopters, pizza delivery wings and grocery delivery drones will look like the greatest food fight ever.
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And now with the FAA slapping down "no fly zones" everywhere and drafting up proposed drone regulations, this proposed 'drone skyway' idea might be just as illusive a target.
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Re: How about delivering some fast broadband?
Now that constraint should not prove a problem in the good old US of A, though one needs to remember that roughly 25% of addresses change annually. Some of that is due to people moving, other parts are due to physical changes. I used to subscribe to a mailing service that tracked those changes. Though it was a long time ago I cannot imagine the ratios changed much.
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Not exactly impressive indeed
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Re: Not exactly impressive indeed
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Re: Re: How about delivering some fast broadband?
Obviously broadband can't get very fast when it has to search the street for the house # first
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Re:
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Network Economics.
For example, imagine an apartment building with a concierge. The concierge has a refrigerator, a freezer, and room-temperature cupboard, in which he can store parcels of groceries which are pre-sorted by temperature. The delivery truck also has temperature-sorted compartments. The truck arrives, and the driver puts fifty or a hundred bags into the refrigerator, freezer, and cupboard, on pretty much the same economic basis as the specialist grocers which deliver to restaurants. The concierge also has a robot, which he can use to deliver parcels to various apartments. The robot might be running back and forth a couple of hundred fee
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Whatever new regulations are created with relation to drones, none will create a Class G airspace.
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I am salivating at this idea!
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The Last Word
“I am salivating at this idea!
I hunt Pheasant and let me tell you, I will give that up in a heartbeat. Sitting on the porch shooting drones out of the sky is the future. Not only will you get a nice bird meal by shooting down the KFC drone, you'll get mash potatoes and biscuits, that beats pheasant any day of the week.