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Why Bhutan Might Get Drone Delivery Copters Before Seattle Does
From Quartz comes the story of a Silicon Valley start-up trying to kickstart a delivery system using package-laden drones to overfly gridlocked traffic — in Bhutan. Bhutanese roads are slow, the weather can be brutal, and there are very few physicians to go around.
That’s why, earlier this year, the Bhutanese government and the World Health Organization reached out to Matternet, a Palo Alto company backed by some big name American investors that develops transportation networks using unmanned aerial vehicles to reach hard-to-access places. ... The project in Bhutan, however, is the first big test for the startup. Matternet is aiming to build a network of low-cost quadcopters to connect the country’s main hospitals with rural communities. Matternet uses small quadcopters that can carry loads of about four pounds across 20 km at a time, to and from pre-designated landing stations. The company is able to track these flights in real-time, and aims to eventually deploy fully-automated landing stations that replace drone batteries, giving them extended range and flight time. The drones it uses typically cost between $2,000-5,000.
Yeah, only the government should be abled to do illegal things with that.
If there's one thing that works flawlessly in brutal weather, it's aircraft.
People who are living in a nation with annual average wages of $6000 not stealing from these "fully automated landing stations" seems really improbable. I mean, Bhutan apparently has an uniquely low violent crime rate for southern Asia, but that just seems like a lot of money for people so poor.
Seems like this method of delivery would be great for dealing drugs, or smuggling drugs across international borders. This is exactly why we need to keep very strict regulation on these things - way too much potential for abuse and illegal activity.
For that price and that payload, I'm pretty sure these are already being used. After all, if they're using autonomous submarines, these would be significantly cheaper, simpler, and less of a hit should one be intercepted. Strict regulations are only effective for people operating within the law (not above or below it).
If the weather is severe enough to delay ground traffic, what are the odds that a drone will be capable of flight/navigation? A full-sized, manned aircraft has fairly specific limitations (crosswind, turbulence, etc.) within which safe operation is possible. While there's at least one less life at risk (the pilot's), I can only imagine that current drones are even more tightly limited - not so much by legislation as by simple physics. If your aircraft has a maximum airspeed of 20kts, any wind exceeding that automatically grounds your drone fleet (unless you're into one-way missions). I've always nursed a pet suspicion that this is what caused John Denver's death - he was flying an ultralight; if the offshore winds ("Santa Anna", I think?) exceeded the maximum airspeed of his ultralight, he probably spent the last few moments of his life watching the shore get further and further away - with no way to rescue himself or radio for help (I don't believe ultralights carry an aviation comms stack).
Yes, because if there is one thing we know about people who break the law to deal illegal drugs, it is that they are huge regulation adherents!
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
Sorry, I did not preview first.
It is also a great way to deliver drugs to doctors and nurses who have a patient who needs treatment fast!
Or are you wanting people to not get treatment to avoid possible abuse?
If that is what you want, then you should be demanding that no painkillers should be given outside a hospital or doctor's office.
Now that would cut out a lot of abuse, who cares about the people who suffer to insure no-one abuses the system?
There is no tech out there that can't be abused, the real question is do the benefits out-weight the abuses.
ECP
The activities you describe are already illegal. It's naughty to kill people too, but adding more laws won't affect people that refuse to follow laws that already exist.
Using the logic you've proposed, we should outlaw computers too. Or even pencils. I've heard tales of pencils being used to write secret notes of illegal activity.
Pull my finger for my public key.
To " Why Bhutan Might Get Drone Delivery Copters Before Seattle Does" is that Seattle has basic infrastructure like roads that aren't impassible after every storm.
Point to point drone corridors can be marked off on maps and given to pilots.
The kind of delivery that people would want in Seattle involves a burrito delivered to their front door.
These are not the same types of delivery patterns or reasons.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
does anyone rah-rahing this have ANY flight experience with quadcopters? It doesn't take much wind or turbulence to severely deplete batteries and reduce range. It also doesn't take much to screw up an automated flight system.
a 3D capable single rotor helicopter with a good autopilot is a much better possibility but no one wants to talk about those-it's all quadcopter this, quadcopter that to bring in investors and eyeballs.
If you don't need the stability for a camera platform, a quad/hex is NOT the vehicle of choice. Deliverables don't care about a little vibration and a nice big TREX 800E will be faster, more agile, and more efficient for a small delivery vehicle. If that's not big enough, a quad isn't gonna help as you need a REAL drone/RPV and oughta consider homebrewing the sensors and gyros into something like the Eagle Helicycle.
But it's a lot easier to buy some off the shelf RC toys to show small scale demos I suppose, and let scalability and real world weather be an issue for a later investment phase.
Problem, those single rotor systems tend to have more delicate parts than quad-copters.
Some quads have four props directly connected to the motors, others a simple gear box on each motor.
Single rotor systems need to tilt the blades at high speeds, I have a friend who has a couple and the amount of work to maintain them is far more than the simpler quad-rotor designs.
ECP
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New Economic Perspectives
How is dealing drugs abuse? Bypassing prohibition to deliver desirable products that are almost all safer than the government approved nicotine and alcohol isn't morally wrong.
Our State Constitution has strong privacy protections, and the act of flying a drone that can see in your upstairs window, without a court ordered warrant issued for a specific person at a specific place at a specific time, violates many parts of that.
Anyone at a higher elevation, ie standing on a hill, can see into your upstairs window so standing on a hill would be illegal. By this logic it would also be illegal to fly aircraft as they can also see into upstairs windows. It is not the ability to spy that is illegal it is the act of spying that is illegal.
Couldn't this be served better with small airships? They would have greater autonomy and I don't think there would be big differences in speed.
__
Men with no respect for life must never be allowed to control the ultimate instruments of death.
GW Bu
Seems like this method of delivery would be great for dealing drugs
Other delivery methods that would be great for dealing drugs are cars, trucks, boats, airplanes, submarines, etc. Gust because the device can be use for drug trafficking does not mean it needs to be heavily regulated.
as one of the big problems with transportation in Bhutan? How well do quad copters work in bad weather?
It sounds like a solution looking for a problem.
On the contrary, they've accomplished plenty of shit!
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Geesh, and you wonder why you're so fat ...
I'm sorry you let your personal animosity get in the way of getting the point of what I wrote. You didn't even understand that I was talking about other people, not you and not me.
You asked why people would want to-the-door delivery of burritos when there is a food truck down the block, and I told you. Lashing out at the messenger doesn't change the message and doesn't merit your personal insults.
Bhutan:
One company running few drones. Low probability of collision between drones
Mostly rural. Low probability of drone striking obstacle
Little civil aviation. Low probability of collision.
Sparse population. Low probability of injury if drone goes down
Seattle
Hundreds of companies wanting to use drones; Much higher probability of collision between drones
Mostly urban with power line, tall buildings, radio towers, etc. Much higher probability of drone striking obstacle
Lots of civil aviation. Much higher probability of collision.
Dense population. Much higher probability of injury if drone goes down
Using a drone in the skies over Seattle is orders of magnitude more complex than over Bhutan.
Who was lashing out?
You were. "... you wonder why you're so fat ..." is a personal insult based on nothing more than your desire to insult someone else for responding to one of your comments.
I was just making a conclusion based on your statement.
I said nothing about me in my statement. There was no basis for any conclusion. Nor did I say anything about you, so you don't even have the excuse that you felt insulted so you needed to insult in return.
But again, we were originally talking about "needs".
No, you were talking about "wants". Quote: "Why would we want door to door delivery of burritos?" That's the comment I responded to. "We" (plural pronoun referring to people in general) want door to door delivery of burritos because we (plural pronoun referring to people in general) want the convenience. That you could find some way to turn this into a personal insult is, well, fascinating but a complete waste of my time.
the word You is both a singular and a plural pronoun.
Now go order a drone pizza so I can get a free dinner.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
They most certainly already are.
Ezekiel 23:20
Bhutan is very rugged and I've been driven over roads that were washed out in rainstorms. I don't know how practical quadcopters would be but I would be interested to see how it works out. :-).
When I was there I saw a farm near the top of a small hill with no roads going to it. I asked - how does the farmer get their crop to market? The answer was by animals (donkeys I think). But apparently the farmers in this area had asked for a road and they probably would get one. The main limitation was how to pay for it - they didn't want to take on any foreign debt for infrastructure developments so it might take a few decades. But they wanted their independence and were willing to wait.
It's very true (as earlier commenters mentioned) that the per capita income is low. But when I was there 8 years ago I was struck at how prosperous and healthy people seemed. If I remember correctly Bhutan was largely a barter economy until the 1950s so some of the discrepancy might be that the official statistics don't capture some elements of the economic activity. There certainly were poor areas and the Nepalese road workers seemed far poorer than the Bhutanese - but I suspect that reality is complicated here. Maybe because Bhutan was never colonized we're seeing what a culture looks like that hasn't been plundered by outsiders? I really don't know but I'd recommend anyone who wants to find out more they should just visit there
With the drones - I'd worry about noise pollution and general impracticality with the current state of quadcopters. But it might work well & I hope that their experiment goes well. When we were there my daughter was bitten by an insect and had a bad reaction - we couldn't tell if it was an infection or an allergic response. Thimphu was a day's drive away. Something like this might work & it might be more economical than building roads. I wish them good luck.
Yes but what happens when the Sandpeople of Bhutan start shooting the $5000 aircraft out of the sky with .20 cent bullets?
good thing it will be impossible for anyone else to gain remote control of the drone or for it to be shot out of the sky so somebody can get the drugs to sell on the black market. it's not like these things will travel over the same route on a regular basis or anything.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!