Flirtey makes first urban drone delivery in FAA test, beating Amazon to the punch

Geek Wire ^ | March 25, 2016 | Alan Boyle

[TigerLikesRooster]

Flirtey makes first urban drone delivery in FAA test, beating Amazon to the punch

by Alan Boyle on March 25, 2016 at 5:07 pm

Flirtey’s hexacopter hovers over Nevada during a drone delivery test. (Credit: Flirtey)

A startup named Flirtey says it’s executed the first FAA-approved urban drone delivery in the United States, in a test that could blaze a trail for Amazon and other companies that want to do the same thing.

The GPS-guided drop-off to an unoccupied house took place on March 10 in Hawthorne, Nev. The package of supplies, including bottled water, emergency food supply and a first-aid kit, was lowered by a rope to the house’s front porch from a hovering hexacopter. A drone pilot and several visual observers were on standby in case something went wrong, but they weren’t needed, the company said.

“Conducting the first drone delivery in an urban setting is a major achievement, taking us closer to the day that drones make regular deliveries to your front doorstep,” Flirtey CEO Matt Sweeny said today in a news release about the test.

/snip

A box containing food, water and a first-aid kit is lowered from Flirtey’s drone. (Credit: Flirtey)

The box is lowered to an unoccupied house during this month’s test. (Credit: Flirtey)

[Jim from C-Town]

The obvious problems of too many drones in the sky and the liability associated with the potential for crashing and causing injury and death to people on the ground are not the largest problem. Liability already is a problem with trucking and delivery.

The real problem is that there are just too few uses that would be economically viable. A truck carries hundreds of packages hundreds of miles on a route. The costs associated with flight, even unmanned drone flight is excessive and has extremely limited cargo capabilities. The batteries have extremely limited time for flight and gas powered drones will not eliminated the problem with limited cargo space. A drone the size necessary in order to make deliveries viable would not be able to fly in low altitude flight safely.

The ever present danger of over head wires, birds, bad weather and high winds would further cause problems.

I am not saying there will be no usage, just extremely limited usage for delivery

[dp0622]

Never thought of all that.

Would be good for things that are usually only delivered one or two at a time, like food orders, I guess.

Not sure how good they would be with the soup :)

maybe they’ll charge a monster fee to get your order delivered by drone, but will it be gotten quicker?

or maybe a delivery to an out of the way home.

can’t see them delivering a couch :)

[Ken H]

The sooner the better. There are so damn many pedestrian X-walks and school zones around here, driving is mostly a pain anyway.

OTOH, I will miss dealing with minimum wage clerks, handy-capped parking spots that occupy half the parking lot, and long checkout lines. I'll get over it somehow.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Currently, to be economically viable, drones should carry high-value small items. Unfortunately, from that perspective, one of the most obvious candidates is illegal drug.

Drones are also vulnerable to shoot-down or hijacking, in addition to problems you mentioned.

[Jim from C-Town]

Even the average deliveries by Amazon would be problematic due simply to limited cargo space and routing around ever present dangers, particularly over head wires. How much would it cost to deliver a single kindle? Perhaps more than the cost of the product.

I purchased my children's swing set from Amazon. No way it could ever be delivered by drone. The drone would have to be the size of a small helicopter.

[Jim from C-Town]

True, how many are shot down now by people who are offended by them? Also if drugs are delivered via drone, it would be way too easy for law enforcement officials to track them.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Actually it would be more efficient to use unmanned self-driving delivery vehicles for that purpose. That is, a robot vehicle which has the size of a large suitcase.

They would not be as sexy as drones, but they should be more useful.

[Does so]

That “unoccupied house” has no electric service.

[dp0622]

what’s it all about then? you seem to have a much better grasp than me on costs and issues.

Amazon is going all out with this drone stuff.

Why? Will it be like PCs? Getting faster and better exponentially? and cheaper?

is the radar technology or whatever foolproof enough for power lines, etc? what if it’s windy? Can a drone adjust for a blowing line?

There was an article the other day about how some joe blow could get the best 3d printer, print lots of guns, get hundreds of drones and launch a massive terror attack.

I don’t know what’s feasible and what’s not anymore.

[Jim from C-Town]

The problem with that is that we already aren't able to keep the roads drivable for people, unmanned vehicles would require sensors in the road and a million other things that would require government bureaucrats to maintain.

[papertyger]

I imagine the delivery trucks will become “aircraft carriers.”

[TigerLikesRooster]

I agree that they have their own share of problems to overcome, but my point is that they may be more commercially viable than drones.

[Ken H]

From what I’ve been able to gather, robot delivery cars will become a reality in our lives a lot sooner than delivery drones.

[Jim from C-Town]

Drone technology is definitely the future. It is more likely to take the place of inspection and monitoring. Traffic cams and reports will almost be all drones within a decade. The news helicopter will be a thing of the past. Visual inspections of cell towers, flare stacks, roofing, real estate drive-by appraisals will all be done by drone.

As for Amazon, They have a stock price of over $550 and a market cap of almost $250 billion. They have money to burn in the investigation and experimentation with reduced costs in an area f massive cost to them, delivery. They hope to create a viable drone delivery system and corner the market cutting out Fed Ex, Ups, The USPS and the entire massive cost they bear with shipping.

Remember, they offer free shipping AND free movie, TV, music and book streaming for less than $10 a month with Amazon Prime. Cutting back on delivery costs is simply good business. Even if they simply prove it not viable.

[Jim from C-Town]

I agree that they almost certainly would be.

[Jim from C-Town]

That makes a great deal of sense. The drones pre-loaded with packages would be brought by manned or unmanned road vehicles and the drones would be released when they enter a neighborhood and the drones would go from the truck to the designated home and return to the truck.

[Ken H]

So how long before robotic delivery of groceries and drug store items becomes commonplace - 5years? 10 Years?

[TigerLikesRooster]

My guess? In some areas, in 5 years. I suppose they should have low crime rate, be smaller in size and not crowded.

To be truly commonplace, there should be infrastructure upgrade on a large scale. Crowded mega-cities with high crime rate and huge public debts may not have much chance.

[Hulka]

Liability due to injuries from the rotating razor-blades. . .propellers.

Imagine deliveries and some child, or adult, reaching up and trying to grab the drone.

Ouch!
http://www.droneinjurieslawyer.com/finger-amputation/
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-34936739
http://droneflyers.com/talk/threads/what-happens-if-a-kid-puts-his-finger-in-a-personal-drone-propeller-while-its-flying.470/
http://www.brooklyndaily.com/stories/2014/50/bn-drone-disaster-at-tgifridays-2014-12-12-bk_2014_50.html
https://www.google.com/search?q=Drone+propeller+injuries&biw=853&bih=399&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjh9Lq62-DLAhUEOiYKHQDQCOEQ_AUIBigB&dpr=2.25