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Transportation

Ziplines Drones Complete Their 1 Millionth Delivery, Flying Over 70 Million Miles (cnbc.com) 20

San Francisco-based drone-delivery service Zipline "said Friday that it hit its 1 millionth delivery to customers," reports CNBC, "and that it's eyeing restaurant partnerships in its next phase of growth."

Zipline's clients already include more than 4,700 hospitals, according to the article, as well as major brands like Walmart. A Panera executive even told CNBC they hope to test Zipline deliveries in Seattle next year, expecting they won't cost the company any more than third-party delivery services: The company said its zero-emission drones have now flown more than 70 million autonomous commercial miles across four continents and delivered more than 10 million products. The milestone 1 millionth delivery carried two bags of IV fluid from a Zipline distribution center in Ghana to a local health facility... Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo Cliffton told CNBC that 70% of the company's deliveries have happened in the past two years and, in the future, the goal is to do 1 million deliveries a day...

"We need to start using vehicles that are light, fast, autonomous and zero-emission," Cliffton said. "Delivering in this way is 10 times as fast, it's less expensive ... and relative to the traditional delivery apps that most restaurants will be working with, we triple the service radius, which means you actually [get] 10 times the number of customers who are reachable via instant delivery."

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Ziplines Drones Complete Their 1 Millionth Delivery, Flying Over 70 Million Miles

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  • Zipline don't do deliveries in urban areas. Distances are short, & places to take off & land to pick up & drop off items are extremely limited. Their own CEO has stated that their service only really makes sense in rural & isolated areas. Don't expect them to compete with cycle couriers anytime soon.
    • >Zipline don't do deliveries in urban areas. Distances are short, & places to take off & land to pick up & drop off items are extremely limited.

      They actually have a drone capable of vertically lowering a package directly onto your front doorstep. This may not work so well in dense urban areas with lots of high-rise structures, but in the suburbs it's fine.

      I'd be far more worried about the ability to provide service in bad weather. Small drones - especially those that have to hover while low

      • Theoretically possible doesn't mean practically feasible, let alone profitable.
        • Your statement doesn't affect the fact that they can already do it and claim they can do it profitably. It'd be a stupid company indeed that would release a new service or product knowing it's going to be run at a loss and isn't going to be a 'loss leader' resulting in more profits elsewhere.

          Zipline has an impressive track record and I would not call their management 'stupid' by any measure.

          • Because they're serving remote & rural areas. That's their business model & their market. They're the first to admit that their hardware is simply unsuitable for urban areas.
    • There are certainly a lot of regulatory barriers to overcome, but many countries including mine are a few years into a many year process of trying to work it out.

      If the technical problems around handover can be solved, feasibly it's as possible for a company fly autonomous urban deliveries as it is for Mr Musk to put his orbital trash up in his fcc allotted particular stratum and spectrum too.

      And as with Mr Musk's orbital trash hurting astronomy, highways of drones carrying people's doordash/deliveroo/s

      • Watch and listen video [youtu.be]

        Redesigned blades basically eliminate the spikey annoying sounds for a low level continuous one that's barely audible.

        It's fair to worry that the cheap hobby drones you hear most often represent the commercial tech, but it's also a solvable problem. We should push for regulations to *require* such things to minimize the effects.
    • Re:AFAIK, (Score:4, Informative)

      by dvice ( 6309704 ) on Sunday April 21, 2024 @12:07PM (#64412236)

      They operate in US, Rwanda, Ghana, Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire, Kenya, and Japan. It explains much better what and why they do if you refer to the studies like "Zipline’s service resulted in a 67% reduction in blood wastage across Rwanda", and "51% reduction in Rwanda of in-hospital maternal deaths due to postpartum hemorrhage".

      Mark Rober made a video of it, in case someone is interested to see it in action in Africa:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

    • by e3m4n ( 947977 )
      Uhh dude, do your research. Mark Rober even did a youtube video on Zipline. The work they do in countries in africa is beyond impressive. I would consider these areas VERY rural. Their capture and recovery arrest system is extremely impressive. Being able to quickly deliver life saving supplies to hospitals where traditional delivery methods are extremely difficult has been a game changer. Just watch this video, if you arent impressed I will feel sorry for you. https://youtu.be/DOWDNBu9DkU?s... [youtu.be]
  • by tiananmen tank man ( 979067 ) on Sunday April 21, 2024 @09:54AM (#64411978)

    Criminals are already using drone delivery at BC prisons to deliver weapons, drugs and cell phones: https://bc.ctvnews.ca/drugs-at... [ctvnews.ca]

  • Didn't they invent some really cool drone jammers that can make them crash or land by now?

  • There is almost nowhere in the SF Bay area where YOU could fly a drone, but commercial is fine?
  • Every time I go past the In-n-Out Burger and see 40-50 cars lined up to talk into a scratchy intercom and wait half an hour to get food, I think how much more convenient it would be if all of those people could just park their car wherever they wanted (or even not have to get into their car at all), enter their order into an app on their phone, and have their food lowered down to them by a drone.

    There'd be no more congestion issues, no need to spend 30 minutes idling in a slowly-advancing car lineup, and no

    • Every time I go past the In-n-Out Burger and see 40-50 cars lined up to talk into a scratchy intercom and wait half an hour to get food, I think how much more convenient it would be if all of those people could just park their car wherever they wanted (or even not have to get into their car at all), enter their order into an app on their phone, and have their food lowered down to them by a drone.

      There'd be no more congestion issues, no need to spend 30 minutes idling in a slowly-advancing car lineup, and no need to repeat your order three times so a teenager can still get it wrong. You might have to deal with gangs of crows trying to intercept your order mid-delivery, though.

      It sounds like you haven't ordered at an In-N-Out lately - the "teenager" is next to your window, in person. As fast food restaurants go, they make extremely few errors because they're well run and well managed. They also pay more than the typical.
      Oh, the biggest problem with your idea is their burgers are only "better" when they're moments-fresh.

  • Fly over humans who would steal the goods and quite possibly the vehicle, or destroy them out of rivalry, and it's pure win.

    It's not just munitions which need security from interdiction.

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