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Robotics Businesses The Almighty Buck Transportation United Kingdom

Rolling Drone Delivery Robots Have Arrived (starship.xyz) 65

Posted by EditorDavid from the Robo-Drop dept.
Starship Technologies has begun testing their on-demand delivery robots in cities around the world -- including Washington, D.C. -- to manage the "last mile" for small deliveries. Slashdot reader Okian Warrior quotes the Starship Technologies site: Capable of carrying the equivalent of two grocery bags, the robots can complete local deliveries within 5-30 minutes from a local hub or retail outlet, for 10-15 times less than the cost of current last-mile delivery alternatives. Customers can choose from a selection of short, precise delivery slots -- meaning goods arrive at a time that suits them. During delivery, shoppers can track the robot's location in real time through a mobile app, and on arrival only the app holder is able to unlock the cargo.
Created by two Skype co-founders, the company uses ground-based delivery drones equipped with nine cameras, two-way audio capability, and GPS, according to ABC News, which has video of the robots in action. "When confronted with any kind of issue or trouble, a human at Starship can take over. The remote operator can have a two-way conversation with those around the robot... They hope to make the robots available for 24/7 delivery and for only a $1 fee." What could go wrong?
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Rolling Drone Delivery Robots Have Arrived More

Rolling Drone Delivery Robots Have Arrived

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  • How will they deal with theft?

    • GPS tracking, high decibel alarms, flame throwers - the usual anti-theft methods used on cars.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

      • high resolution cameras with quality flashes are cheap now. So is wireless internet. If you steal one of these there will be a video of you doing so and you'll go to jail. They'll be valued at over $100k too so it'll probably fall under grand larceny. In most places do it three times and we'll send you to prison for the rest of your life.

    • Deploy them in a civilized place.

      There are parts of the world where people leave others people alone for the most part. Not everything needs to be bolted down. They're very nice to visit and live in.

  • Will the postal union require a Random Wrong Apartment delivery mode and the UPS union require a Ring And Run mode?

  • Avoid the City of Brotherly Love (Score:4, Insightful)

    by tomhath ( 637240 ) on Sunday July 03, 2016 @08:50AM (#52438251)
    Or it might face the same fate as Hitchbot

  • Does this mean they'll be selling to Microsoft after it catches on?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by unrtst ( 777550 )

      Those kinda illustrate the limitations this thing will have.

      AFAICT, the market for these is pretty damn small.
      * Many areas lack sidewalks. Even well built up and affluent areas just outside of major downtown cities.
      * Many areas with sidewalks also have significant pedestrian traffic. This thing is NOT as agile nor small as another person. In a busy downtown area, this won't be accepted.
      * This leaves low traffic areas with sidewalks, but only within 1-3 miles of the base station, and you've gotta have a manu

  • Stupid (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    âoeCan you push the crosswalk button for me, please?â

    Humans are not going to take kindly to robots taking their jobs...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sims 2 ( 994794 )

      Well they might not even notice. Did you notice when they disconnected the crosswalk buttons?

  • I expect these things will get spray painted rather quickly.

    Also, delivery bot napping: dragging them into a van and using them for spare parts, or just holding them hostage.

  • How long before these things start getting stolen, hacked, and used by drug dealers instead of 12 year-old kids on bicycles? Another example of automation putting hard-working Americans out of work.

    • If these things start carrying drugs, they will certainly get hit by a lot of people. The 12 year old kids on bicycles are cheaper, less hassle and more dependable. Plus they provide a good career path into your criminal organisation. Kind of like a summer internship...

      • If these things start carrying drugs, they will certainly get hit by a lot of people. The 12 year old kids on bicycles are cheaper, less hassle and more dependable. Plus they provide a good career path into your criminal organisation. Kind of like a summer internship...

        The difference is that the kids get paid.

  • The Rolling Drones (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    ...and are soon to form a rock and roll band of their own.

  • Makes much better sense than flying drones, but not without problems...
  • Call in a delivery, then as it comes to your house drop a metal box on it to insulate the robot from the entire EM spectrum (well, the parts it finds useful) -- cutting off its comms link, GPS, and vision. It's almost too easy. Who gave these people money?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by lannocc ( 568669 )

      as it comes to your house

      Not the smartest place to take a delivery, in your scenario!

    • then as it comes to your house drop a metal box on it ... Who gave these people money?

      Right now I'm more interested in who gives you money.

  • Ahem (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    "When confronted with any kind of issue or trouble, a human at Starship can take over. The remote operator can have a two-way conversation with those around the robot... "

    Before I help you help your robot out of a jam, let's discuss my fee.

  • Who here has a gentle sloping path up to their door? I'm in Southern California and I'm trying to think of any neighborhoods where this would be able to get very close to most doorsteps.

  • Rolling drones (Score:5, Funny)

    by Hognoxious ( 631665 ) on Sunday July 03, 2016 @11:36AM (#52438855) Homepage Journal

    Do they have a special coating to repel lichens and similar things?

  • Should work well ... until (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Kohath ( 38547 ) on Sunday July 03, 2016 @11:51AM (#52438945)

    This should work well in some select neighborhoods, in good weather, during the day. Then the company will get sued for discriminating against people in poor neighborhoods. Then they'll start offering the service in poor neighborhoods. Then the deliveries will get stolen and/or the robots wrecked. Then the company will have to double the delivery fee on everyone to make up for the extra costs.

    Meanwhile, regular deliveries during the day also work fine. Unlike the robots, regular delivery guys just drop off the goods when their route takes them past your house. They don't need to schedule a time to meet with you. Regular delivery guys know how to not get robbed. They can deliver a when it's raining or snowing. They can carry more than 2 grocery bags. And delivery isn't super expensive now, even though it includes the wages of the delivery guy.

    It will be interesting to see what happens with these. I expect a mix, with robots delivering to rich neighborhoods in California and delivery guys delivering anywhere with weather or crime or where you can hire a trustworthy delivery guy for an affordable wage.

  • Scalability? (Score:3)

    by ThosLives ( 686517 ) on Sunday July 03, 2016 @12:31PM (#52439095) Journal

    One thing I don't get about small drone delivery: even with a capacity of "two bags of groceries" that means for N packages you are going to need N or N/2 trips for each drone. This is opposed to, what, N/100 trips for traditional delivery services?

    Does anyone working in the logistics industry have any comment on how this can possibly be more efficient than traditional delivery in any way? Maybe there is something subtle and I (and many others) just can't see it...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cusco ( 717999 )

      Currently I see this as most useful during peak delivery times, Valentines Day, Mother's Day, Christmas Season, and the like. In my neighborhood during those times an air view would probably show two or more delivery trucks from both UPS and Fed Ex wandering around the neighborhood for pretty much the entire day. Now Amazon is going into the delivery business in some areas as well. Load the delivery drones up at the [fulfillment center/distribution center/whatever you call it] and pile the ones for my ne

    • Maybe there is something subtle and I (and many others) just can't see it...

      Robots are much cheaper and much easier to deal with than humans.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kubajz ( 964091 )
      This would allow to have autonomously driven delivery trucks where the "last mile" might be just a couple of meters from the public road to the door of the house.

  • This reeks of hype and a startup looking for venture capital to blow before being sold to the highest bidder for far too much money.

  • It is time for a calendar to be kept of each day in which the death of a trade is announced. Today we just heard the death of delivery boys and girls announced. Obviously it will take a few years for these delivery bots to totally replace human delivery workers. But in effect, the handwriting has been written on the wall. Taxi, truck and other drives should already be on that calendar and construction workers as well are about to be phased out. Front of store fast food workers are out and oddly the kit
  • So how far is 5-30 minutes in distance? What useless way to specify their ability! When you look at one the initial feeling is they won't go very far, so will be of rather limit use initially.

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