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Switzerland Begins Trials of Expensive Postal Drones
An anonymous reader writes: Swiss Post has beat Amazon, Alibaba and other researchers into drone-based delivery by launching practical drops using a Matternet four-rotored drone this month. However the company says that five years of testing and negotiation with regulators lie ahead before it will be able to offer a commercial drone-based delivery service. Like Google's Project Wing, the Matternet drone in question is mooted as a potential lifeline in post-disaster situations, but from a business point of view the release notes its potential for 'express delivery of goods' — a further indicator that the future of postal drone delivery may be an exclusive and expensive one.
Can a 4 rotor continue flying, or at least make an emergency landing without flying wildly or crashing, if one rotor goes out?
With a max load package?
For that matter, can a 6?
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Somewhere in the Swiss Alps, a poor delivery drone lies buried in an avalanche, only to be rescued by a Saint Bernard trained how to change drone batteries.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Some people seem eager for self driving cars but an autonomous vehicle carrying passengers seems to raise a lot of flags. Why not put them into service, initially, as delivery vehicles. Would that be easier to get through regulators than the airborne option?
Why are they on trial?
Was disappointed.
They better learn to peddle even faster.
In sub-urban and rural areas I think drone-based delivery can be cost-effective. I think the key is to use a hybrid model with a "drone carrier" truck which serves as a mobile base station so the drones are only making relatively short flights. Imagine a truck that pulls into a sub-urban neighborhood, stops in one central location and then launches a dozen drones to deliver packages to all of the homes within a half mile or so. Or perhaps the truck might not even have to stop, but just drive along launching drones which deliver along its path and then return to it, still in motion.
The advantage to the delivery service is that they could deliver to many nearby locations simultaneously, and trucks wouldn't have to be able to enter difficult locations (which currently constrains the design of package cars). This means the trucks could be larger, carrying more packages, and would deliver much faster, requiring fewer trucks and drivers. Given a self-driving truck, the "drivers" might end up being drone tenders/troubleshooters, rather than drivers. They could remotely designate appropriate drop-off locations when the drones can't find a good locations themselves, as well as handle any problems that arise with the equipment, and maybe still do package handling, to retrieve packages from storage in the truck and move them to where the drones can pick them up, at least until that can be adequately automated.
I think it makes a lot of sense. The technology isn't there yet, but I don't think it's far away.
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This is for express deliveries. The point is not to be "cheaper", but "faster".
Not necessarily. On the upside, the drones only weigh a few kilograms, compared to a tonne or two for a truck, and the drones can fly as-the-crow-flies direct routes, and they are electric vehicles, so are actually potentially much *more* efficient, particularly in Switzerland, where they get a lot of their energy from hydroelectricity.
I suspect in a lot of cases they will be faster and more efficient.
-WolfWithoutAClause
"Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"Rubbish, are these postal drones going to be paid? Healthcare? Holidays?
Once they've got it worked out and the local sorting offices fully automated then a lot of postal people could easily lose their jobs. That doesn't sound like more expensive mail to me.
If you're a delivery driver then you should definitely be looking to change your career before drones and autonomous vehicles make you redundant.
Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
"...the Matternet drone in question is mooted as a potential lifeline in post-disaster situations,..."
In post disaster situations, we need no post, keep the invoices until the disaster is over.
I know a lot of people who were afraid of drones going postal.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
Not necessarily. On the upside, the drones only weigh a few kilograms, compared to a tonne or two for a truck,
For dispatching a single rush package sure, it could be faster. But what does it do when it arrives? drop it on my front step where anyone can get it, or does it ring my bell, and politely hover at my door? Will it ensure i sign for it (typically rush packages are traceable)...
What if I'm in an office building? Does it drop it on the busy front steps, or does buzz in and drop it off at reception?... What if im a tenant in a skyrise the 30th floor?...does it take the elevator to the 35th floor?
Just doesn't make a lot of sense.
And for traditional daily bulk delivery; you are delivering along a street / superboxes etc... and the 1 ton truck probably carries half a ton of mail on its route, if not more.. how many drones will that take?
What is the drone range relative to a truck? What does the drone do on rainy days or windy days? How does it cope with snow? sleet? hail?
What happens when it malfunctions and has to land? (or crash)? Is my high priority rush delivery now sitting in someone's back yard or on their roof or in their swimming pool? Or up a tree? (that's what happens when you fly as the crow flies right? It may not be be next to a major road.) While a human postman is dispatched to find it..?
I may be missing something, but i just don't see where this makes sense in general. Maybe extremely cherry picked niches... but that's it.
In order for the package to be useful, you need to be where it arrives.
Imagine if you received a notification saying it was at the post office and then you replied to it, and it arrived shortly afterwards, so you're always there to receive it.
-WolfWithoutAClause
"Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"Imagine if you received a notification saying it was at the post office and then you replied to it, and it arrived shortly afterwards....
Imagine all that happened, and then I wasn't there to receive it. Because: life.
And it still doesn't address everything from bad weather to drone malfuntion...
As much as efficiency and all that is wonderful, I see a problem of noisy drones buzzing overhead day in, day out. Another source of irritation in an increasingly stressful civilization. Would completely destroy a relaxing day in the park and it'd be hell in the city. If they started flying over my back yard, you can bet I'll be erecting nets, or possibly installing a CIWS.
Why can't we let people believe whatever they like? It's not like a little religion has ever hurt anyone.
Not yet. They're going after the most complex problem now. What they could really look at is using large UAV's for air shipped goods in large quantities. The problem is again, reliability in making sure they don't crash and kill people on the ground.
The big advantage of using UAV's in flying is that the can exploit the efficiencies of balancing flight time, altitude and velocity while removing the human constraints. I'm not entirely sure what the optimum can be, but I'm hazarding a guess that flying higher and slower will require less energy to complete the trip. In ordinary piloted flying, well this creates the problem that the altitude means less oxygen, longer flying hours means additional crew for shift rotation which all preclude commercial flights from necessarily doing it. They might not even have to be planes, could very easily be solved with UAV blimps, although I think it's safe to assume that they still won't use hydrogen...