'Disruptive' Drone-Delivery Startup Zipline Hires Former Tesla CFO (techcrunch.com) 33
CNBC reports that former Tesla CFO Deepak Ahuja (now at Alphabet's Verily Life Sciences) will join the leadership team at Zipline, a Silicon Valley-based company providing drone deliveries:
It initially focused on medical supplies, but is expanding into e-commerce and food delivery. The company has previously partnered with the Rwandan government to deliver medical supplies and handled Covid-19 vaccine distribution in Ghana, and has expanded operations from three to seven countries over the last two years, according to a release....
"Rarely do I see this level of disruption and impact paired with the world-class technology that Zipline's team is building," Ahuja said in a release. "It's an exciting time for Zipline, and I'm thrilled to join the team as we keep building to offer these solutions at a massive scale."
The move comes "as the drone delivery and logistics startup accelerates its global expansion in Africa, the United States and other regions," reports TechCrunch, noting that Ahuja will be the company's first chief business and financial officer: Zipline also operates in Japan and in the United States, including Arkansas and North Carolina. The company is expanding to Utah later this year through a partnership with Intermountain Health and announced plans to begin operations with Multicare Health System in Washington starting in 2024.
Ahuja will focus on building Zipline's business in the United States and other regions globally, the company told TechCrunch.... His appointment signals Zipline's growing aspirations fueled by partnerships and $250 million in venture capital it raised last year. (The company has raised $486 million to date.) The company, founded in 2014, has developed the entire ecosystem from the drones and logistics software to launch and landing system....
It also recently received FAA Part 135 approval for its long-range drone delivery service in the United States.... Zipline has partnerships with Toyota Group and UPS, it delivers medical equipment and personal protective gear for Novant Health in North Carolina and health and wellness products for Walmart.
"Rarely do I see this level of disruption and impact paired with the world-class technology that Zipline's team is building," Ahuja said in a release. "It's an exciting time for Zipline, and I'm thrilled to join the team as we keep building to offer these solutions at a massive scale."
The move comes "as the drone delivery and logistics startup accelerates its global expansion in Africa, the United States and other regions," reports TechCrunch, noting that Ahuja will be the company's first chief business and financial officer: Zipline also operates in Japan and in the United States, including Arkansas and North Carolina. The company is expanding to Utah later this year through a partnership with Intermountain Health and announced plans to begin operations with Multicare Health System in Washington starting in 2024.
Ahuja will focus on building Zipline's business in the United States and other regions globally, the company told TechCrunch.... His appointment signals Zipline's growing aspirations fueled by partnerships and $250 million in venture capital it raised last year. (The company has raised $486 million to date.) The company, founded in 2014, has developed the entire ecosystem from the drones and logistics software to launch and landing system....
It also recently received FAA Part 135 approval for its long-range drone delivery service in the United States.... Zipline has partnerships with Toyota Group and UPS, it delivers medical equipment and personal protective gear for Novant Health in North Carolina and health and wellness products for Walmart.
People Aren't Allowed to Fly Drones Here (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
So, it seems that corruption kept the airspace free for commercial enterprise.
Perhaps elaborate as to the general location of Here, so the rest of the drone pilots flying drones that are fully legal for civilian use and sale can avoid moving to that backwards-ass corrupt town.
Re:People Aren't Allowed to Fly Drones Here (Score:4, Informative)
It's completely normal to not be allowed to fly drones near a lot of locations.
Such as hospital heli pads, airports, high power wires, etc, etc, etc.
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It's completely normal to have to ask permission to fly in those areas, anyway.
From my friends who have made such requests I know they are also likely to be granted.
A friend of mine used to have a drone-based business right next to the Watsonville airport.
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It also depends. If you live near, say, Heathrow (and 'near' is relative), then it's just an outright ban, no permission granted ever.
The larger the airport, the more restrictive, generally.
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It's completely normal to not be allowed to fly drones near a lot of locations.
Such as hospital heli pads, airports, high power wires, etc, etc, etc.
Over the weekend I was in a US national park. Flying drones is prohibited, and there are signs posted, and information posted on the park's website.
So guess what someone was doing?
Re: (Score:2)
Getting arrested would be the answer over here :) But I'm assuming that's not what you were inferring.
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Getting arrested would be the answer over here :) But I'm assuming that's not what you were inferring.
error: undefined variable 'here'
syntax error: use of 'infer' detected. expected 'imply'.
So... (Score:1)
When a company hires someone else's C*O, is it because they are really that good, or is it just a sort of name-dropping to buff their image?
Re: (Score:3)
Could be either or both.
Re:So... (Score:5, Informative)
I was wondering why this is news. Firstly it's the CFO, the F being for financial. It's not like they are hiring engineering talent.
Secondly, Tesla has a very poor track record on delivering autonomy features. Full Self Driving has been weeks away since 2016. The current software is alpha quality and requires an attentive human driver to avoid killing the occupants. Not the kind of thing you want when you are flying drones carrying cargo loads.
Seems like they just threw out a press release in the hope that having an ex-Tesla employee gives them a bit of credibility, and generates some publicity for the next funding round.
Re: (Score:2)
I was wondering why this is news. Firstly it's the CFO, the F being for financial. It's not like they are hiring engineering talent.
Secondly, Tesla has a very poor track record on delivering autonomy features. Full Self Driving has been weeks away since 2016. The current software is alpha quality and requires an attentive human driver to avoid killing the occupants. Not the kind of thing you want when you are flying drones carrying cargo loads.
Seems like they just threw out a press release in the hope that having an ex-Tesla employee gives them a bit of credibility, and generates some publicity for the next funding round.
Well the one thing that Tesla is awesome at is generating hype and stock valuation. So if I was a startup with my pick of Telsa talent then the CFO would be the top of my list (assuming Musk wasn't available).
Otherwise, if I'm an investor I'm worried that Zipline isn't prepared to properly absorb and use all of that new cash. A high-profile CFO who's successfully been through a similar growth period helps answer those concerns.
Bleh another exciting world-changing startup (Score:3)
"Rarely do I see this level of disruption and impact paired with the world-class technology that Zipline's team is building," Ahuja said in a release
Often do I see this level of pointless rah-rah in a PR statement.
Re: Bleh another exciting world-changing startup (Score:2)
I see that level of disengenuousness on every PR statement. I have come to believe that artificial exhuberance is a necessary precondition of all business ventures. It's like a law of nature.
Am I feeling disruptive today (Score:2)
I hid the sugar pot from our coffee machine at work.
"Disruptive" (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Found the guy who hasn't looked at maps of controlled airspaces
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Drones are not allowed to fly near airports
Kind of. First, "near" means very near, or directly in the flight path, not anywhere in the neighborhood of. The larger the airport, the larger the excluded zone. You can look them up trivially on flight maps. Or you can get a cute little booklet that's got them in print for your use while in the air... or while playing a flight sim sufficiently realistic that it matters.
Second, it's not that drones aren't allowed to fly there. It's that you have to request permission to fly in certain areas very near an ai
Re: (Score:2)
a) are delivering time sensitive medical supplies to places that don't have airports nearby.
b) they don't land when doing it
These aren't like quadcopters these are more like planes that have 50 mile range to reach remote places.
"The drone cruises at 101 km/h (63 mph) at an altitude of 80–120 metres (260–390 ft) above ground level, ensuring deliveries are made within 45 minutes. The drone can carry up to 4 pounds (1.8 kg) of cargo and whilst it can fl
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Well, it's excellent to know that whole argument was even more pointless than usual. I should try to remember that :)
Re: "Disruptive" (Score:2)
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Their original design was built for delivering time sensitive medical supplies to parts of Rwanda that couldn't be reached quickly enough. So that means each medical facility had a dedicated place that the packages would land. I'm curious to see how they try to adapt that technology to consumer deliveries who don't have a dedicated place.
Rural niche (Score:1)
Delivering to isolated rural customers could be a fairly big niche. You don't have to be everything to everybody to make a profit.
I imagine it would only be practical for small packages, like medicine, spices, condiments, small batteries & replacement parts, etc. Robo-trucks may be more cost effective for bigger items, but then you'd have to deal with dodgy roads, or lack of roads.
So we're back to that (Score:2)
I thought we were finally past the endless misuse of the term "disruptive" to describe iterative (if even that) changes; but I guess not.
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Disruptive and Drone (Score:2)
Yeah, that headline doesn't conjure up images of a skynet gunner.
Do not want (Score:2)
If you think 2-stroke engines... (Score:2)