A flying robot brought us our dinner tonight...

[Serk]

Soon this will be blasé I'm sure, but I'm still geeking out about it.

Zipline is rolling out drone deliveries in my town, and I signed up and somehow got on the early adopter program.

They're giving me free $$$ to go crazy and just ordered dinner for the 2nd time using it.

The only option is Buffalo Wild Wings, which I'm not a huge fan of but hey, free!

So you order on the app, and within 10-15 minutes a driver picks up the food from the restaurant, takes it to the drone airport and loads it on the drone. (The drone airport is centrally located near all the major places.)


Drone airport near me, next to a lot of fast food places + Wal Mart, etc...

When your dinner takes off you get a 3d map on your phone of the drone flying to you, then it hovers over your assigned delivery area (My front yard for me) and a droid is lowered by a cable to the spot, opens up and leaves your order, gets winched back up and the drone flies back to base to get the next order.

(And no driver, so no tip!)

I'd show some of my pics, but there are way better ones out on the interwebs:

Short video showing it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=airEzThGlx8

First delivery the whole family was outside watching eagerly.

Tonight, was just me and Serk Jr. The novelty of a freaking flying robot bringing dinner has already worn off for the other two. ("Dad, we're not 50! Yeah cool but meh?")

Anyway... just wanted to share. I love this stuff, would love to go back and try to tell Little Serk that one day he'd have a flying robot personally bring him dinner and it'd be no big deal.

Once they're no longer giving me free credits I'll probably still use it, but very sparingly. Looks like it's the places regular price + around $8 to have the flying robot bring it (Not sure if that's the final real price or just what they're showing me now.)

(And before anyone says it, you do NOT wanna take pot shots at one of these things! BIG nono, FAA takes that sort of stuff VERY seriously.)

[carolinarider09]

That is really interesting.  Would have not thought it would be "cost effective" but......

[Jersey mike]

That’s pretty cool and quite a long drop line. I was expecting this things to land and deliver the goodies.

Boy if they can do that with food, I wonder what military applications something like this has. Just think of all the remote detonated devices that can be placed.

[f6john]

What’s for dinner tonight? I don’t know, let’s go drone hunting! Adding another layer of excitement to the evening meal? Will there be no fly zones for meal deliveries? Possibilities are endless!

[Hook#3287]

It seems like there would be a lot of conflict with all other flying items in the sky, like birds, insects, other food delivery drones, recreational drones.

How will the FAA control this?

In order to fly my recreational drone, I'm pretty sure the rules state I'm supposed to have the drone in my sight at all times and if I have a commercial license, the restrictions are many.

What happens when one of these falls out of the sky, which I'm sure will happen, you know, that gravity thing.  

Can you see the sky over New York City at dinner time?

As far as military uses go, the Ukrainian military has already proven many deadly applications.

[Jess from VA]

My question is... was the food hot? 

The micro is OK for some stuff, other stuff not so good.

[Rams]

While I doubt such a service will ever be offered in my country location with a smaller population to support such services, I still think it's cool as heck.   Although it would be a shame if only Buffalo Wild Wings were the only option.   I don't eat chicken, it's fowl ya know. 
Dairy Queen would be great (if it didn't melt on the trip). 

Rams

[Serk]

That is really interesting.  Would have not thought it would be "cost effective" but......

That was initially my thought but the more I looked in to it, it appears to be far cheaper than traditional delivery.
Instead of a two ton ICE vehicle with a personal driver ("Are you really broke, or did you pay for a personal chauffer for your burrito?") it's a 50 pound electric powered robot.
(Less traffic too)
The costs on the drones are coming down fast, this company designs and builds all their own (In USA even)

That’s pretty cool and quite a long drop line. I was expecting this things to land and deliver the goodies.

Boy if they can do that with food, I wonder what military applications something like this has. Just think of all the remote detonated devices that can be placed.

As mentioned below both sides in the Ukraine/Russia war are pushing the state of the art in such matters. (I'm getting very uncomfortable thoughts of this conflict being like the Spanish Civil War where both sides tried out their new toys right before WW2, but I digress.)

Since they've learned to jam radio signals, the battlefield is now covered with single use fiber optic lines as well.

What’s for dinner tonight? I don’t know, let’s go drone hunting! Adding another layer of excitement to the evening meal? Will there be no fly zones for meal deliveries? Possibilities are endless!

And you might end up with grandma's diabetes meds, or blood for a transfusion, or.... other things... instead of dinner... 

It seems like there would be a lot of conflict with all other flying items in the sky, like birds, insects, other food delivery drones, recreational drones.

How will the FAA control this?

In order to fly my recreational drone, I'm pretty sure the rules state I'm supposed to have the drone in my sight at all times and if I have a commercial license, the restrictions are many.

What happens when one of these falls out of the sky, which I'm sure will happen, you know, that gravity thing.  

Can you see the sky over New York City at dinner time?

As far as military uses go, the Ukrainian military has already proven many deadly applications.

For safety they realize how big of a black eye a single booboo would be. Everything on the drone is double redundant (It can lose 2 props and still return to base), it's made of foam and if all else fails it's got a deployable parachute so it'd crash land slowly...

The drones are registered and licensed with the FAA as aircraft; they even have 'N' tail numbers (N825DM is one I specifically noted). They're large enough most birds would stay away, they stay under the ceiling for passenger aircraft and they're scanning for other things in their path. Of course, they talk to each other as well but that's just for their brand.

My question is... was the food hot? 

The micro is OK for some stuff, other stuff not so good.

Yup, it was still hot. (Part of the reason I'm on the early adopted program and they're paying is to get feedback on things just like this actually.)

While I doubt such a service will ever be offered in my country location with a smaller population to support such services, I still think it's cool as heck.   Although it would be a shame if only Buffalo Wild Wings were the only option.   I don't eat chicken, it's fowl ya know. 
Dairy Queen would be great (if it didn't melt on the trip). 

Rams

Give it time. The current iteration of the drones have a 20 mile range and a to speed of 70 MPH (They reconfigure from drone to a fixed wing configuration for travel for maximum efficiency, then back to a hover drone once at the destination.) I could see them spreading out a lot further than they curretly are...

--------------

If anyone's interested Mark Rober did a deeper dive on this, and their history (It's fascinating too! The 1.0 version is fixed wing, caught like a aircraft carrier, and used to deliver blood and medicine to remote areas in Africa) here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOWDNBu9DkU

And a more recent one from Marques Brownlee here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88yQTzlmsiA

(It was sort of surreal watching a video from "just" 4 months ago that says "I thought we were supposed to have drone delivery by now" while eating a drone delivered chicken wrap.)

(Gotta wonder if the spirit of the chicken wings were yelling out "HAHAH! WHO'S FLIGHTLESS NOW!!!")

[sandy]

Amazon has started using these in PHX. One homeowner filmed the delivery. The package was dropped in his backyard and the prop wash promptly blew it into his pool.

[Hook#3287]

Amazon has started using these in PHX. One homeowner filmed the delivery. The package was dropped in his backyard and the prop wash promptly blew it into his pool.

Hahahaha!

That's awesome.

[Serk]

Amazon has started using these in PHX. One homeowner filmed the delivery. The package was dropped in his backyard and the prop wash promptly blew it into his pool.

News video abut this incident:

https://youtu.be/398fh3RrzhA

Yup, this sort of thing (And the noise, and people not wanting autonomous robots with spinning props of death at eye level in their yards) is why this company developed the system where the drone stays at least 100 yards in the air during the whole process...

Had a 3rd delivery Friday night just so my (in their 80's) parents could witness it.

I told the drone to deliver in the back yard this time so my dad could see it without trying to navigate his walker up the stairs in my front yard.



(It landed on the other side of the to be torn down club house)

They were impressed, lots of "Living in the future" "The Jetsons had it right" "Wish I could show my (Aviation geek) dad (My grandfather)" comments.

The real test will be how much it's used after the novelty has worn off.

Because their pricing is roughly the same or cheaper than ground based services (Uber Eats, DoorDash, etc) I think they'll do quite well, and based on the rate at which these things are popping up their investors seem to agree.

...they just need to develop one that can carry a pizza...

[Willow]

Amazon has started using these in PHX. One homeowner filmed the delivery. The package was dropped in his backyard and the prop wash promptly blew it into his pool.

Hahahaha!

That's awesome.

What a dumb ass!  They offered him the option of where it was to be dropped and he chose next to the pool.

[f6john]

Even though I’m less than 20 miles from Lexington, Ky , I imagine it will be a long time before this comes to Richmond. The only times I have ever ordered food to be delivered was when I was staying with my Son who lives in Lexington. Those times it was worth it to me to not have to deal with traffic. But the delivery drivers did, so they weren’t timely deliveries. So, bring on the drones.

[Rams]

Amazon has started using these in PHX. One homeowner filmed the delivery. The package was dropped in his backyard and the prop wash promptly blew it into his pool.

Hahahaha!

That's awesome.

What a dumb ass!  They offered him the option of where it was to be dropped and he chose next to the pool.

Well, that's rather harsh.   Not knowing what his other options might have been makes one wonder no doubt.   Large trees in his front yard?   First time ordering a drone delivery and not knowing what to expect?   I suspect there's always a learning curve.   You may be right (or not).

Rams

[DIGGER]

Was in Fort Worth Texas yesterday eating at a chic filet next door to a walmart. While eating I was watching drones taking off from walmart with small packages.  The way of the future....

[cookiedough]

never happen where I live small towns of 1000 or so.

If only 8 bucks delivery charge not bad if that includes the tip and all

How many of you use the order online and have grocery stores or walmart, etc. pick your items and just pull up to the front locations of the store to delivery your groceries and other store items?

I for one would never use it ONLY takes another 20-30 minutes tops to run into the store and pick out your own food.

[Serk]

What a dumb ass!  They offered him the option of where it was to be dropped and he chose next to the pool.

I can't speak to the specifics of the Amazon system, but the Zipline one for my situation at least only gives me two options. My front yard or a spot in the back yard that the dogs prefer to use as their bathroom. I don't get to choose at a more granular level than that.

Even though I’m less than 20 miles from Lexington, Ky , I imagine it will be a long time before this comes to Richmond.

You might be surprised.... There's a lot of big $$$ companies behind various competing systems, and they know whoever gets the widest deployment first is likely to become the dominant one. We know of FedEx, UPS, DHL but never hear about the thousands of also-rans. No one wants to be an also-ran.
And the current Zipline drones have a 20 mile delivery radius right now, give it another year or two...

Was in Fort Worth Texas yesterday eating at a chic filet next door to a walmart. While eating I was watching drones taking off from walmart with small packages.  The way of the future....

Says a lot about how we've become The United State of Generica. The drone airport for this one is behind a Chick-Fil-A next to a Wal Mart. Wal Mart had a drone operation in their parking lot, but it appears to have been shut down, I presume in preparation to shift to Zipline as their delivery company but we'll see...

never happen where I live small towns of 1000 or so.

If only 8 bucks delivery charge not bad if that includes the tip and all

How many of you use the order online and have grocery stores or walmart, etc. pick your items and just pull up to the front locations of the store to delivery your groceries and other store items?

I for one would never use it ONLY takes another 20-30 minutes tops to run into the store and pick out your own food.

As I said above, they've got a 20 mile range today, and that will only get further and further. It's coming quicker than people realize IMHO.

As far as the grocery pickup service, I personally prefer going in and picking out my own stuff, but for people like my "Mid 80's and don't get around so well anymore" parents it's a life saver. My dad's not set foot in a grocery store since Covid, initially because of that but now because he's a high fall risk and needs a walker to slowly limp around.

I do use Wal Mart delivery sometimes to avoid the door Nazis. At my store they'll challenge you for a receipt if there's anything unbagged in your cart.

For non-perishable items they don't charge for home delivery if your order is $35 or more.

So I get 40 pound (Used to be 50 pound) bags of dog food, cases of bottled water, cat food, cat litter, etc I just have their people bring it to my front door and don't have to be harassed at the store about it.

[Jess from VA]

My dad's not set foot in a grocery store since Covid, initially because of that but now because he's a high fall risk and needs a walker to slowly limp around.

My 95yo mom is also high fall risk and needs a walker (2 kinds) for most all ambulation.

But my sis in law and brother take her to groceries (almost) weekly and she gets in one of those motorized carts and motors around and gets what she wants.  She likes that bit of independence and to get out of the house, but it wears her out.

[Rams]

Serk,
Can those drones with obstacle avoidance capability detent overhead power lines?

Rams

[Serk]

Serk,
Can those drones with obstacle avoidance capability detent overhead power lines?

Rams

The drone airport has powerlines running right next to it, and there are also high power transmission lines (The ones with the larger all metal towers) within 50 yards or so in their flightpath towards me, so they must somehow... Guessing a lot of that is mapped in plus LIDAR plus optical scanning...

Also that the drone appears to go straight from its' takeoff point to a cruise altitude of around 100 yards and never goes below that altitude until it returns to base for landing. The lowering of the delivery is a straight up and down thing from altitude, there's no horizontal movement below 100 yards...

I hope that makes sense. It sounds a lot more complicated than it is (In concept, not execution of course.)

Here's a pic I took of last night's dinner delivery. The drone itself is visible next to the tree, while the lowered droid (Connected to the drone by a cable winch) can be seen closer to the ground on the way to make the actual delivery.



Also just for S&G here's a screenshot I took on my phone as the drone was flying to me. There are high power transmission lines running along Highway 66 that the drone is going over in the image.

[Rams]

Makes sense that the drones go vertical upon take off to cruising altitude.   I was just curious about how good that detection capability is/was.   Thanks for the information.

Rams

[Serk]

I had a sit down chat with the rep from the company today and asked him specifically about the power lines...

Several things at play here, one being the vertical take off then not moving horizontally below 100 yards, also they do a survey of the delivery area before beginning service and all things above the ground are mapped (Not just powerlines, he made a point that powerlines aren't treated any differently from anything else)

So the system on the back end knows where obstacles are, as well as there being active collision avoidance while in flight.

For deliveries it needs very little horizontal free space due to the hover and winch down technique.

[Rams]

I had a sit down chat with the rep from the company today and asked him specifically about the power lines...

Several things at play here, one being the vertical take off then not moving horizontally below 100 yards, also they do a survey of the delivery area before beginning service and all things above the ground are mapped (Not just powerlines, he made a point that powerlines aren't treated any differently from anything else)

So the system on the back end knows where obstacles are, as well as there being active collision avoidance while in flight.

For deliveries it needs very little horizontal free space due to the hover and winch down technique.

Gotcha!   One of the times I had a near miss incident was when a Infantry unit at Ft. Sill, OK ran their commo lines in an area known for helicopters flying Nap of the Earth.   They strung those lines right through our normal route that we burst through between some trees in a deep valley about twenty feet AGL.   I barely saw them in time to pull full pitch and avoid wrapping that wire around the control tubes and mast of my aircraft.   All aviation maps are updated with wire locations prior to every flight, mine was updated prior to the flight.   The Infantry unit had not provided the commo line location,  my collision avoidance system was just barely good enough...........  

Rams