Using RC helicopters instead of quadrotors would mitigate that a little.
Another mitigation could be to specify allowed jump points (for example on big street crossings where the noise from cars would drown the drones' noise anyway).
If the difference is big enough it's like adding 0.01 to 10. You'd need a lot of drones to influence the total noise level noticeably.
From my experience (Fimi 8 SE ~ 300g drone) the drone is annoyingly loud at < 5meters, and becomes practicaly silent at >50 meters (at least I don't hear it anymore).
Use the mesh which they already need to have to timesync their onboard systems, and have that modulate the rotors according to their ambient awareness. Profit by having an ubiquitous PA booming down from the heavens above...
While true, you can take advantage of the fact the most people don't perceive 2 sources of identical noise as 'twice as loud'. And given the extensive dynamic range of sound it is not uncommon to drown out sound with noise that's a few orders of magnitude louder.
Though I reckon it's more likely that the constant noise of drones will drown out the traffic noise than the other way around. Not just because it's constant but also because it's LOUD.
Yeah... in particular, part of the unworldly annoyance of drones is hearing 4~6 slightly different pitches, all constantly changing, as each prop spins at its own speed to make slight corrections.
Well if a sound is loud enough it's going to drown out everything else just by being much much louder. You can't hear a pin drop when lots of people are talking for instance.
That said I estimate a drone to be much louder than regular traffic, at least inside cities.
Even better is if the recipient is the one making the last mile trek on that bike. The logistics of delivering to a hub vs to a hub then also your individual door for that one box of post it notes are so much better for the environment.
I'm quietly hoping and waiting for online stores to take over empty store fronts for last mile delivery. Would love to be able to walk a block away, get my Amazon order, and return it there.
Now imagine that instead of returning something back to a central warehouse, Amazon could have the next customer pick it up or ship it nearby.
Hopefully boxes would not be needed for most of this, too. And any online store(s) could do this.
Tell that to the people with Raptors that use Lawrence Expressway as a public drag race track. Half the point of all these race cars is that they're loud as fuck.
