The company I work for, LLamasoft, works with Zipline to model and optimize their supply chain. We did a press release Aug 30th, if anyone is curious. Fortunately we have had support for different modes of transport for a long time, so adopting drones into our model was trivial.
https://www.llamasoft.com/llamasoft-supports-zipline-improve...
In the video the drone dropped the package on the roof using a small parachute. Many buildings shown there seem to have those walled flat roofs which are accessible via stairs which is also popular in the middle east.
That seems to be a critical part for implementing this in an urban delivery system. People will likely need to install some sort of out-of-reach delivery chute on their roof or some sort of box on the buildings to prevent theft.
It will make it more expensive to implement but I can't see how deliveries would work without some sort of on-the-ground infrastructure like this.
But when it does happen though it will be glorious.
At last a real use for drones. And also drones and launch systems well designed for the duty.
There might be other startup opportunities here. Our postal service at least has this where they has to deliver letters 5 days of week and cost can be pretty high https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&pr...
This is really a great application for quick transportation to a remote zone, which is so crucial in remote areas. But I can't help think that for each 'good' application, there might be dozens that are not so beneficial, for example : Drugs and Arms delivery across border, just to name few ....
I have nothing against the technology, I'm just really curious about it's more 'nefarious' uses.
According to zipline website [0], there will be 4 stations, Mwanza, Geita, Mbeya and Dodoma. Looking on maps, Geita and Mwanza are really close to each other, moreover looks like at least third of potentially covered land around Mwanza is water. Wonder what is the reason behind this.
While I liks the drone idea, I have to be pedantic here:
But that mission can be a challenge during emergencies, times of unexpected demand, bad weather, or for small but critical orders.
Um 2-3 out of those four will not be improved by drones!
Using drones for just-in-time deliveries will allow us to provide health facilities with complete access to vital medical products no matter the circumstance,” concluded Bwanakunu.
Including bad weather eh?
There is a relevant drone competition called the UAV Challenge Medical Express where teams have to retrieve a blood sample from a remote location. https://uavchallenge.org/medical-express/
Is there more extensive description of what the Medical items delivered actually are? I guess it's mostly just blood?
Tanzania launches the world's largest 2015/16 drone-hype VC funding delivery service
This title "...latest..." threw me off a bit. Somehow associated "last" with that. Yet I have no problem when it comes to "latest tech", "latest research". Weird.
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This service has already been running in Rwanda since 2016 with positive results. [0]
It's great to see other countries trying out this form of delivery, as rural roads in Africa can be quite bad.
I'm interested to see if this trial is successful in Tanzania, given that it's geographically much larger than Rwanda and has a much lower population density.
Tanzania: 47.5 persons/km^2 [1]
Rwanda: 445 persons/km^2 [2]
Rwanda is more dense by an order of magnitude.
[0] http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37646474
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanzania
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwanda