
Australian Startups To Begin Delivering Textbook Orders By Drone - talkingquickly
http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/14/australian-startups-zookal-and-flirtey-to-begin-delivering-textbook-orders-by-drone/
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cstross
Am I the only person around here who thinks that the correct solution to
prompt textbook delivery around campus is a wifi or 3G network and an ebook
reader, rather than a noisy flying machine of questionable safety?

(Five stars for WTF-grade novelty of start-up proposal, one star for safety
and efficacy.)

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EliRivers
Electronic textbooks are rubbish compared to paper textbooks. They win only on
weight and ease of copying (they should win on price, but the electronic
version is often more expensive than the paper version). I have many of my
textbooks in both electronic and paper format and the electronic version is
what I use when I'm away from my paper, as the "better than nothing" backup.

The usability of a paper textbook is far superior. Easier to add my own notes
to (notes which, I might add, I can be sure will be there the next time I read
it, and the next, and forever), easier to write and draw on, easier to add my
own coloured sticky tabs, easier to have five or six open at once, easier to
literally put my fingers in it and flick back and forth to compare, and a
fixed format that I know will be usable five, ten, and fifty years from now.
Also more pleasant to read (except for those grey market overseas editions
which sometimes are not well printed and on bad paper, but at one-tenth the
price it's a fair trade-off!).

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mrspandex
So, they decided the following must be true: \- Textbooks are something that
people want right away and can be delivered outside \- Students are willing to
pay a premium for fast delivery from a nearby location fairly often \- A small
helicopter is an efficient way to deliver thick paper books

I feel like they couldn't have chosen a worse product to deliver via drone.

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bdegman
The killer-app for drone delivery is drugs, legal or illegal.

~~~
techdragon
Nah, Its Pizza.

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saosebastiao
Drone delivery methods attack the aspect of delivery with the lowest value-
added, and there isn't much evidence that it can do it more efficiently than
current methods that get aggregated to a truck and then disaggregated on a
route.

When you pay for a person to deliver something within the same city (the
relevant range for drone delivery methods), well over 80% of that value is
attributed to a human being that is capable of doing the following things:
Finding obscure building entrances, knocking on doors, collecting signatures,
backing up vehicles around obscured corners into loading docks without hitting
trash cans and sleeping homeless people, identifying obscured address signs,
pressing the correct buttongs on elevators, avoiding malicious dogs, and
placing packages in places that are obvious to the recipient and non-obvious
to thieves.

To be sure, this also applies to driverless-vehicle delivery as well, although
the value-added aspect that is provided by humans is lower because the
relevant range of the vehicles is higher.

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oliwary
I believe this would be perfect for transporting Automated external
defibrillators
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automated_external_defibrillato...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automated_external_defibrillator))
to people with heart problems immediately.

These have to be provided very quickly in order to maximize chance of
survival. If someone saw a person collapse in a city he could call an
Ambulance, and a drone with one of them attached would be sent to the location
of the phone via GPS. The people there could then use the machine to attempt
to save the persons life. This should be way faster than ambulances,
especially in cities, and in the face of saving lives the cost would be
negligible.

EDIT: Ah, urgent medical supplies are mentioned in the end of the article. I
really hope this works out!

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phreeza
_As with most major innovations that start with a military background, such as
the Internet, SMS, GPS and satellites, when applied to a community problem
they have a significant and positive impact on society._

Not sure if I should laugh or cry.

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auctiontheory
Let's hope they don't run into anyone: [http://www.nydailynews.com/new-
york/queens/teen-killed-remot...](http://www.nydailynews.com/new-
york/queens/teen-killed-remote-controlled-helicopter-slices-throat-
article-1.1447068)

~~~
miahi
A RC helicopter is _not_ a toy. Helicopter blades are really dangerous, and a
helicopter is at least 10 times harder to control than a quad drone. Flying a
RC helicopter is like balancing a stick on your finger, with strange inertia
and with optical feedback only. The drones have built-in stabilization
circuits, but this is optional (and quite expensive) for RC helicopters. Most
RC helicopters cannot hover by themselves, the hovering is actively controlled
by the handler at all times.

The blades are long, very strong (usually carbon fiber) and the linear speed
at the end point can reach more than 100km/h. Even a smaller 450-class RC
helicopter blade can break a bone, and that was a class 700 one. Compared to
that, the small drones are _realy_ friendly - most of the drone propellers can
be stopped by a finger without getting hurt.

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plehoux
This will be crush by regulations. The future of delivery is in Google hands
right now. They got two amazing technologies,Bufferbox and the Google
driverless car, and a big enough lobby power to change the laws.

Things will be delivered by autonomous Bufferbox vehicles.

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dman
Weve invented drones that can deliver textbooks but were still using physical
textbooks?

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stefap2
The books should be delivered by google's driver less cars.

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the_cat_kittles
i wonder what the cost per mile would be for each method (drone and car)

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z92
What will it take to convert all cargo planes into drones?

