Rwanda Is Way Ahead On Delivery Drones (ieee.org) 49
the_newsbeagle writes: While the Google spinoff Wing is just launching its first commercial service in Australia (scones and coffee are on the menu) and getting FAA clearance to operate in the United States, a company called Zipline is already offering a nationwide service in Rwanda. Zipline currently uses its fixed-wing drones to deliver blood products to hospitals across the country, and will soon begin delivering other medical supplies as well.
Medical supplies seem like they could be a killer app for delivery drones, since they're often lightweight and urgently needed. But Zipline hasn't yet proven that its business model is sustainable. So two technology reporters from IEEE Spectrum traveled to Rwanda to embed themselves in a Zipline operations center, and produced an in-depth report and a 360 video about the company's logistics and technology.
Medical supplies seem like they could be a killer app for delivery drones, since they're often lightweight and urgently needed. But Zipline hasn't yet proven that its business model is sustainable. So two technology reporters from IEEE Spectrum traveled to Rwanda to embed themselves in a Zipline operations center, and produced an in-depth report and a 360 video about the company's logistics and technology.
Hmm (Score:1)
Medical supplies seem like they could be a killer app for delivery drones
Phrasing?!!
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Hmmm.... steak and kidney pizza... delivered by drone!
But remember, as the airline pilots union tells us "it's only a matter of time before a drone brings down an airliner"... and they're right. The George Mason University did the science and they agree. The university study predicts that "the matter of time" involved is (at present rates of manned and unmanned flights) about one fatality caused by collisions between drones and manned aircraft every 400 years.
And, given that even when drones are spotted f
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It's all hysteria and knee-jerk reactions on the part of politicians and regulators.
You sound somewhat disappointed. Would you rather those politicians and regulators be jerking something else?? They've got to "earn their keep" somehow.
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They better be ... (Score:3)
... since they're probably way back on roads.
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As far as I am informed, after the civil war they actually got their shit together and are prospering. Do you have official facts or is this just an old bias against African nations?
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Maybe you should get better informed before accusing others of bias then?
Rwanda is doing relatively well but that's relative to the civil warn and genocide and stuff. They're still one of the poorer countries in the world (similar to such powerhouses as Afghanistan and Haiti in PPP GDP [wikipedia.org]) and like 70% of the road network is unpaved [cia.gov] which is a problem for urgent deliveries during the rainy seasons.
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As far as I read, main roads are in good condition and one would assume that hospitals are located on main roads.
From what I see the country is primarily struggling to provide power to the country which is why prices are high and industries aren't much interested.
Re: They better be ... (Score:3, Informative)
I went to Rwanda last year (I'm Australian) and I was pleasantly surprised how developed it was. Anyone who says something negative about a country without having stepped in it is a knob.
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Re: They better be ... (Score:1)
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Sustainable (Score:1)
A small truck/van then makes a delivery to a clinic, pharmacy, hospital.
The gov/private sector pays for the delivery.
Using a huge truck so many things can be moved at once for a lower price.
s/to much/too much/ # goddammit! (Score:1)
Rule 301 of the Internet: If you call somebody an idiot, you WILL overlook a typo that will make you look like an idiot. :)
Rule 301a: Don't worry. If anybody will call you an idiot for that rule 301 will befall him too.
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You don't just forget a few million people being slaughtered any time soon. Ask Germany.
These things are held only against European peoples. With others, it is considered racist to associate past deeds of their country to them and apply guilt simply because they share the same genetic lineage.
Tech leapfrogging (Score:5, Interesting)
I learned about Zipline a while ago. As often happens in the developing world, because the existing infrastructure is lacking compared to what we have, they often skip some solutions and just go to the most modern one. So just like many poor countries don't have good land line coverage (or even electricity) they just go directly to cell phones which obviously work wirelessly and can be charged from a solar panel or a crank.
So it totally makes sense that with a craptacular road network, it makes a ton of sense to just use drones. There's a pretty good video that goes over exactly how all that stuff works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
It's pretty much what you'd expect but what I found interesting though is that they came up with a contraption to capture the planes in mid-flight instead of belly-landing them on grass like you would with a hobby plane. But that's probably necessary to keep the cargo bay doors working reliably.
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They are skipping over technologies that rely on government provided infrastructure (which the government hasn't provided) to technologies that can be done directly by the private sector.
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Thats true, but since there isn't infrastructure or capital, they are also leapfrogging over established practices.
Since there is no bush pilot service, that means the first drone one will aim for completely different goals than what a similar firm would be able to aim for in remote Alaska. So low volume, high throughput, low cost.
Where established services in the first world tend to boil down to maybe a flight a day, maybe even with such high volume that you need to land to offload. Where parachute parcel