7 ms·

Google Wing will deliver to about 100 homes in Canberra

190 points by tooba 7y ago

fenk85 7y ago
Anyone want a round of betting for when it closes?
reustle 7y ago
Ignoring the noise, politics, and financial feasibility of this, we sure are living in the damn future.
- elicash 7y ago
  Noise is already solved in the one they're using in the commercial service, per the article. Politics also were cleared, as the aviation authority there gave them permission. So yes, financial feasibility remains.
  - peteretep 7y ago
    > Noise is already solved The article simply says they have a quieter drone than their first one
    - elicash 7y ago
      Fair, but it's at least solved to a degree with they have permission to use it commercially. There could be other standards for what's considered solving the problem, but that seems like a reasonable one.
  - Numberwang 7y ago
    I don't believe noise is solved until I see a video of it.
- originalvichy 7y ago
  The noise just comes from the size of the rotors. Large propellers have a lower whine sound which makes them bearable
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
jcelerier 7y ago
"release the hypnodrones !"
piker 7y ago
Wow that noise is terrifying. Compare: https://youtu.be/oU4Rk0NATNs?t=168 https://youtu.be/oU4Rk0NATNs?t=168
- pwenzel 7y ago
  Or the Mike Patton version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgex1ukrsko https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgex1ukrsko
mrtksn 7y ago
I personally expect that the first successful drone delivery service will be implemented by some sophisticated drug dealers because unlike with all these drone delivery services, they would need to be quiet and reliably deliver products instead of publicity.
- golergka 7y ago
  Current deaddrop schemes seem to be working quite well, drones would be much easier to target than just a random person walking around.
  - mrtksn 7y ago
    One needs to restock these dead drops, right? Maybe a distributor can bypass all the small time street dealers and create an empire whose only distribution channel is drones.
    - golergka 7y ago
      You must be from US - it seems to be lagging behind in that area. Here, there are not street dealers anymore, deaddrops are how end users buy it. And hiring a stream of low-skill couriers that end up in jail after 2-3 months of working for anonymous boss is way cheaper and safer than flying drones from your own location.
      - penagwin 7y ago
        At least around here (in US), while street deals are still the common among most people, USPS is likely the one of the biggest/safest methods now. They require a warrant to search domestic packages, not to mention the most common "illicit substance" is now commercially legal in many states...
  - bluedino 7y ago
    Don't drones have to be controlled from a certain distance? Most prisons around here are in remote areas, so if you see car pulled over on the side of the road near a prison, maybe they are flying a drone to deliver contraband.
fifnir 7y ago
I just want to have a pizza delivered to my balcony one day
- justtopost 7y ago
  When in college, I once delivered to a 3rd story balcony via ladder. Anything is possible if you hire the right people. Unfortunately, this service requires a large spot in your yard. Sorry apartment dwellers.
  - SilverbackCoder 7y ago
    People with the yard space will become hubs (for a relatively small fee) for apartment dwellers. Or, the drones will deliver to the roofs of the apartment blocks instead.
    - v7p1Qbt1im 7y ago
      Or maybe windows at some point?
michaelt 7y ago
There's a better video of the drones here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prhDrfUgpB0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prhDrfUgpB0 Google's delivery drones combine a multirotor design with fixed-wings. It seems like an eminently sensible design to me; fixed-wing operation will be quieter and more power-efficient, allowing longer travel distances (unlike the early Amazon Prime Air videos [1]), while hover capability avoids the need to parachute the load (unlike the current Zipline drones [2]) and provides a hover-and-land-almost-anywhere capability I imagine is useful. Presumably the winch-down-the-load design reduces the risk of a user putting their hands into the blades - not to mention reducing the risk from customers choosing an inappropriate landing location; I imagine the drone can also jettison the winch cord if it gets caught on anything. It precludes delivering directly to apartment windows - but AFAIK no-one else is trying that either. It's a pity they haven't released clear info on these drones' range, round-trip time and weight carrying capacity. Which are of course critical to working out the profitability of a citywide coffee delivery service. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR9PoBAssw0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR9PoBAssw0 [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnoUBfLxZz0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnoUBfLxZz0
- cs02rm0 7y ago
  I wonder if the winch is to prevent people nicking the drone.
  - Cthulhu_ 7y ago
    Why would they? How often are delivery trucks stolen, for example?
    - penagwin 7y ago
      Delivery trucks are hard to transport and store once they're reported stolen. It'd be more sensible to just steal the packages on the truck. The drone is "small", can be transported and stored without it being visible, so it get's lots of points there. Also I'd be concerned about stupid people/assholes and the shiny new drone. That said, Cameras+GPS, not to mention you don't want to steal the drone if it's delivering to you because it'd be kinda obvious.
no1youknowz 7y ago
I can envisage a future where you have huge drones with landing pads that fly between hubs in a set amount of times. This will then allow individuals to request a drone from a 3rd party. Load up the package and program the drone for the final destination. The drone flies to the LZ drone where it lands and waits until its main destination and then resumes flight until it delivers the package. The drone could have a wallet where it takes the initial payment from the customer. Which a % goes to the drone operator, when the drone lands a % goes to the LZ operator and any other stops. Having essentially P2P delivery system will be a total game changer!
- marsRoverDev 7y ago
  I think with today's technology there's no need to build a card reader into the drone itself. It can just be handled online prior to delivery (or after successful delivery).
god_bless_texas 7y ago
Interesting, the FAA has announced the first drone delivery air carrier approval in the US will happen in April. I would have thought Flirtey would win this race but according to the NYT the only application listed is from Google Wing.
- justtopost 7y ago
  Strong arm lobbying has its uses.
dbuder 7y ago
I will rest easier when Skynet agrees not to film us all from their ever present drones.
NotPaidToPost 7y ago
You can now have shrimps literally thrown onto the barbie from the sky. We live in the future.
hpkuarg 7y ago
133,000 Packages Lost as Google Cancels Wing Service in Midair
- tdhoot 7y ago
  Doesn’t repeating this trope on every Google related topic get old? We get it, they cancel projects. Hahaha?
  - slashink 7y ago
    I’d agree that it would have gotten old if this was an isolated past of Google but fact is that Google shuts downs products left and right even today, recently Google Inbox. People will keep making fun of Google for this as long as Google keep throwing products at the wall that they don’t intend to keep supporting.
    - tdhoot 7y ago
      Googles inclination to deprecate products is common knowledge at this point. What value is added by restating the obvious in every Google related thread?
      - anoncake 7y ago
        To make sure it won't stop being common knowledge.
      - hpkuarg 7y ago
        It's an (admittedly somewhat low-value) homage to the classic Onion article.[0] [0] https://www.theonion.com/133-dead-as-delta-cancels-flight-in-midair-1819568121 https://www.theonion.com/133-dead-as-delta-cancels-flight-in...
    - v7p1Qbt1im 7y ago
      Except, you know, this is Wing, a separate entity. Besides. It almost sounds like many people would like them to stop releasing products all together. Market research is not yet at a point where you can predict if something will be 100% successful.
dejaime 7y ago
To be discontinued...
bamboozled 7y ago
It's difficult to imagine that this is ok from a privacy standpoint. I mean yes, the claim is that there is a "low-resolution fitted for debugging purposes", but why would Google stop there? There are now cameras flying around Canberra and there is seemingly not a single way for a civilian to differentiate between a Google delivery done or a fake drone used for spying. There will be no way for people to opt-out of this. I see this will end up similar to the way people who send emails to Gmail users cannot opt out of Google being able to use their personal information without consent. You will be on camera whether you like it or not. Canberra also supports large native bird populations, this can't be too healthy for their stress levels as this scales up.
- jrockway 7y ago
  It is surprising to me that this is the straw that broke the camel's back. There are billions of Android users that appear to be browsing the web on their phones but are actually taking pictures of you (you personally!) and uploading them to Google. There are planes flying around taking pictures. There are drones flying around taking pictures. There are satellites flying around taking pictures. The cat is out of the bag. There are pictures of you. Not sure why that should stop drone delivery (or self-driving cars for that matter, which guess what, have cameras on them).
  - ryanhuff 7y ago
    Are you claiming that Google takes and transfers images of the user as they browse the web on their Android device?
  - bamboozled 7y ago
    There are not satellites taking photos of people as frequently or as in close proximity as these things will. Google would literally be able to identify even how healthy you’re looking by image classification. To you’re point about Androids, yeah, it’s not healthy or good that the thing is effectively a data mining apparatus. So now, even if you decide to leave the phone at home to get some privacy, now you’re going to have to bring a disguise too.
- 7y ago
lm28469 7y ago
What's the use case besides delivering to remote areas ? I can get Zipline's mission [0], but personal deliveries ... ? A UPS truck with hundreds of packages surely is more efficient than an army of drones in urban areas. https://x.company/projects/wing/ https://x.company/projects/wing/ > "Wing is developing a new method of transporting goods that’s faster, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly" What's the advantage compared to an electric van ? > 27% of greenhouse gas emissions come from transportation. I mean, yeah sure, but changing the last 3km of the delivery from van to drone won't change the fact that the coffee beans or new iphone you just bought came from the other side of the world via shipping containers which is 99%+ of the pollution associated to the delivery. [1] [0] https://flyzipline.com https://flyzipline.com [1] https://medium.com/@victoria27/heres-how-much-pollution-shipping-containers-and-freight-trucks-cause-b358cb034c70 https://medium.com/@victoria27/heres-how-much-pollution-ship...
- bagacrap 7y ago
  Your medium link doesn't support the 99% claim. There's no way the last mile is less than 1%. Strikes me as obvious that cargo ships are vastly more efficient per pound than a FedEx truck.
- govg 7y ago
  One advantage could be speed - drones will allow you to move faster for smaller orders. Just like you have the shipping container -> warehouse -> trucks -> local warehouse -> smaller trucks -> home, you can extend this to respond faster to customer requests, as well as not involve any humans in the whole last mile delivery system (avoiding costs etc)
- marsRoverDev 7y ago
  I imagine this would be used for Immediacy solutions. Amazon Prime Now being a great example of which. It would cost more, but per order it's probably cheaper than a guy on a bike given guy on said bike + insurance + overheads will take a bigger cut than the drone will.
  - truebosko 7y ago
spectramax 7y ago
No one talks about the noise. Every time I read about drone delivery, this major aspect is omitted from the discussion but I believe it would be a nuisance to have drones droning around all the time making a huge amount of noise. Airplanes make a lot of noise and it is still a hot topic in neighborhoods adjacent to airports. Little hobby drones make some noise but when you’ve got a drone lifting 5kg of weight, it’s going to make a tremendous amount of noise.
- Reedx 7y ago
  ~1/3rd of this article is dedicated to noise. :) Trials of the drones had attracted complaints from residents in Bonython, Canberra, who said they were noisy and intrusive. The Bonython Against Drones campaign said the devices could be heard from "a long way off, both coming and leaving". "When they do a delivery drop they hover over the site and it sounds like an extremely loud, squealing vacuum cleaner," the group said on its website. In response, Wing said it had developed a quieter drone. The aviation authority says Wing must use this quieter drone for its commercial service.
  - maxxxxx 7y ago
    "quieter" doesn't mean "quiet". I am very doubtful that they can reduce it to bearable levels.
- mertd 7y ago
  > No one talks about the noise. That's almost the only thing the article talks about.
- TheMagicHorsey 7y ago
  I think fixed-wing drones make less noise than the Quadcopter ones.
atonse 7y ago
Are people really even considering this given how noisy it is?
swamp40 7y ago
Curious if mufflers for electric motors have been invented? Does the noise come from the motor, or from the prop cutting thru the air?
- ansible 7y ago
  The motors themselves don't make much noise. The noise is from the props themselves.
js2 7y ago
I thought this was being done in rural China since mid last year by JD.com: https://www.economist.com/business/2018/06/09/how-e-commerce-with-drone-delivery-is-taking-flight-in-china https://www.economist.com/business/2018/06/09/how-e-commerce... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-07-03/china-s-on-the-fast-track-to-making-uav-drone-deliveries https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-07-03/china-s-o... And in Japan: > Rakuten has been offering drone delivery in Japan since 2016 and unmanned vehicle trials since 2018. It said that working with JD — which claims to have racked up 400,000 minutes of delivery flight time — will “accelerate the development and commercialization” of its human-free last-mile delivery efforts. https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/21/jd-com-drones-rakuten/ https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/21/jd-com-drones-rakuten/
rhacker 7y ago
> Wing said the feedback obtained during its trials had been "valuable" and it hoped to "continue the dialogue". That's code for they have asked their lawyer to see what was legal and if they can simply ignore the complaints. We continue to wage war on silence. The other day I was far the heck out there on a trail and the only things I could hear were squirrels birds and a few other things. My soul was at peace. We can't have that in cities or even suburbs any more. Instead we get BUMP BUMP BUMP from passing cars. The level of anxiety we get from cities is insane and people don't really even understand this until they are 60 years old. I'm 38 and I understand it.
- yaacov 7y ago
  I don’t get anxiety from cities. I love cities. Your experience is common but not universal.
  - grandmczeb 7y ago
    Same - I actually like city noise. It’s really annoying when people assume their preferences extend to everyone.
  - zapzupnz 7y ago
    Indeed, I prefer noise. Silence makes me feel ill at ease, like nobody's around, like something terrible could happen and I have no recourse to anybody. I don't feel safe in silence, but whenever I tell anybody this, I'm poo-pooed as being silly.
- bsimpson 7y ago
  If only there were quieter places, out in the countryside, where you could have Really Uninterrupted Relaxing And Leisure - hey, we could even call them that: R.U.R.A.L.
  - anoncake 7y ago
    That is no excuse for making cities louder than they need to be.
ansible 7y ago
The design of the drones is interesting. I've though that the original Project Wing design (flying wing that transitions 90 degrees for vertical hover) would have been more efficient. Or a larger version of the E-flite X-Vert VTOL: https://www.horizonhobby.com/x-vert-vtol-bnf-basic-efl1850?gclid=CjwKCAjwy7vlBRACEiwAZvdx9rloOrrq_gmUq3V812ZqovBKKwQENX-9CJ4S2dCslGrB3cNP_FQjeBoCMssQAvD_BwE https://www.horizonhobby.com/x-vert-vtol-bnf-basic-efl1850?g...
- nickparker 7y ago
  I suspect they're still headed that way long term, and just went with this design to get testing ASAP because the pusher configuration has more challenges. The flip maneuver is difficult to integrate with their sky crane style system. You absolutely don't want to tilt your payload because that ruins lots of foods (coffee, pizza) so you either need some sort of pivot mechanism for your payload attachment smack dab in the middle of the craft, or you have to do some daring aerobatics to finish retracting the crane as you begin low speed level flight. Their noise problem is almost entirely because of those tiny propellers - A pusher wing with a pair of much larger (10+"), slower props could be pretty quiet.
  - jpm_sd 7y ago
    You are semi-correct. The tail sitter design was abandoned because it was too difficult/unstable to control while using the winch. The core team that started Wing quit X awhile back and formed a new company, Skydio, which has built an incredibly cool drone for the purpose of high-tech narcissism: https://www.skydio.com/ https://www.skydio.com/ https://www.pcmag.com/review/366306/skydio-r1 https://www.pcmag.com/review/366306/skydio-r1
dreamcompiler 7y ago
I guess the good news is that when Google inevitably cancels this project the barrier to entry for other companies is not very high.
Mtinie 7y ago
"They will not be allowed to fly over crowds or main roads." I know this is specific to the current set of guidelines, but if I imagine this service launching in my part of the world I'm unsure how it would even work with this requirement. To go from one side of my city to the other you have to traverse a number of main roads. If you're setting up base stations all over the place to launch from to keep from breaking across main roads I can't see how this solves the distribution problem (though it may solve the "we have to pay humans to deliver packages and takeout food" problem...)
- aeternus 7y ago
  The FAA is currently considering relaxing this requirement.
alexissantos 7y ago
For a moment, I thought the drones were delivering homes, and I was very excited. I am still excited, but less so now.
tuberelay 7y ago
Can engineers please critique the following idea: Design city size "Spidercam" style delivery systems https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDGAa6ww7S4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDGAa6ww7S4 3-4 tall pylons with heavy duty winches and kevlar cable linked in the middle to hold a winch system that can lower a delivery box anywhere in the city. 1/4 inch kevlar rope weighs 2lb per 100ft, therefore a 2 mile kevlar rope would weigh 210lbs, but has a load bearing capacity of 9500lbs. So this system would allow accurate delivery anywhere in a 2mile x 2 mile area. Potentially these could be coupled to allow transfer between areas to allow deliveries to be passed along a chain. Multiple winches could be stacked on pylons to allow multiple sets of ropes, with winches which are near to delivery/pickup points moved downwards and to lower rope tension to avoid other winches/ropes bumping into them.
- derp_dee_derp 7y ago
  I can tell you why this will never be a thing: the infrastructure cost is way too high. Not just the cost of materials and labor, either. I'm talking social, political, and environmental costs. people would fight this left and right. Power lines are already considered an eye sore in many places and are required to be underground. good luck convincing people that a power line with a bunch of moving boxes on it is going to be any better. its essentially a gondola for packages and no one wants that in their backyard.
- rtkwe 7y ago
  You'll have large shadows defined by where buildings are in relation to the pylons and the shuttle would not be able to descend below the roof line in many areas outside of a subdivision with low 2 story houses depending on how tall the towers are. In addition you can't really do this anywhere there is going to be air traffic with the current systems as you'll need to shut it down whenever a helicopter wants to fly through.
gordon_freeman 7y ago
I'm wondering what exactly Google will use this home delivery by drone tech for? Their Google Express service is nice but it's not their main business and this makes a lot more sense if it was launched by e-commerce giant like Amazon. I'm just wondering how Google will convert this tech in a viable business?
- v7p1Qbt1im 7y ago
  The main area Assistant is worse at compared to Alexa is shopping. They kind of need to have their own e-commerce platform. You could (eventually) combine that with drone delivery.

190 points by tooba 7y ago

fenk85 7y ago

Anyone want a round of betting for when it closes?

reustle 7y ago

Ignoring the noise, politics, and financial feasibility of this, we sure are living in the damn future.

elicash 7y ago
Noise is already solved in the one they're using in the commercial service, per the article. Politics also were cleared, as the aviation authority there gave them permission. So yes, financial feasibility remains.
- peteretep 7y ago
  > Noise is already solved The article simply says they have a quieter drone than their first one
  - elicash 7y ago
    Fair, but it's at least solved to a degree with they have permission to use it commercially. There could be other standards for what's considered solving the problem, but that seems like a reasonable one.
- Numberwang 7y ago
  I don't believe noise is solved until I see a video of it.
originalvichy 7y ago
The noise just comes from the size of the rotors. Large propellers have a lower whine sound which makes them bearable
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

jcelerier 7y ago

"release the hypnodrones !"

piker 7y ago

Wow that noise is terrifying. Compare: https://youtu.be/oU4Rk0NATNs?t=168 https://youtu.be/oU4Rk0NATNs?t=168

pwenzel 7y ago
Or the Mike Patton version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgex1ukrsko https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgex1ukrsko

mrtksn 7y ago

I personally expect that the first successful drone delivery service will be implemented by some sophisticated drug dealers because unlike with all these drone delivery services, they would need to be quiet and reliably deliver products instead of publicity.

golergka 7y ago
Current deaddrop schemes seem to be working quite well, drones would be much easier to target than just a random person walking around.
- mrtksn 7y ago
  One needs to restock these dead drops, right? Maybe a distributor can bypass all the small time street dealers and create an empire whose only distribution channel is drones.
  - golergka 7y ago
    You must be from US - it seems to be lagging behind in that area. Here, there are not street dealers anymore, deaddrops are how end users buy it. And hiring a stream of low-skill couriers that end up in jail after 2-3 months of working for anonymous boss is way cheaper and safer than flying drones from your own location.
    - penagwin 7y ago
      At least around here (in US), while street deals are still the common among most people, USPS is likely the one of the biggest/safest methods now. They require a warrant to search domestic packages, not to mention the most common "illicit substance" is now commercially legal in many states...
- bluedino 7y ago
  Don't drones have to be controlled from a certain distance? Most prisons around here are in remote areas, so if you see car pulled over on the side of the road near a prison, maybe they are flying a drone to deliver contraband.

fifnir 7y ago

I just want to have a pizza delivered to my balcony one day

justtopost 7y ago
When in college, I once delivered to a 3rd story balcony via ladder. Anything is possible if you hire the right people. Unfortunately, this service requires a large spot in your yard. Sorry apartment dwellers.
- SilverbackCoder 7y ago
  People with the yard space will become hubs (for a relatively small fee) for apartment dwellers. Or, the drones will deliver to the roofs of the apartment blocks instead.
  - v7p1Qbt1im 7y ago
    Or maybe windows at some point?

michaelt 7y ago

There's a better video of the drones here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prhDrfUgpB0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prhDrfUgpB0 Google's delivery drones combine a multirotor design with fixed-wings. It seems like an eminently sensible design to me; fixed-wing operation will be quieter and more power-efficient, allowing longer travel distances (unlike the early Amazon Prime Air videos [1]), while hover capability avoids the need to parachute the load (unlike the current Zipline drones [2]) and provides a hover-and-land-almost-anywhere capability I imagine is useful. Presumably the winch-down-the-load design reduces the risk of a user putting their hands into the blades - not to mention reducing the risk from customers choosing an inappropriate landing location; I imagine the drone can also jettison the winch cord if it gets caught on anything. It precludes delivering directly to apartment windows - but AFAIK no-one else is trying that either. It's a pity they haven't released clear info on these drones' range, round-trip time and weight carrying capacity. Which are of course critical to working out the profitability of a citywide coffee delivery service. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR9PoBAssw0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR9PoBAssw0 [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnoUBfLxZz0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnoUBfLxZz0

cs02rm0 7y ago
I wonder if the winch is to prevent people nicking the drone.
- Cthulhu_ 7y ago
  Why would they? How often are delivery trucks stolen, for example?
  - penagwin 7y ago
    Delivery trucks are hard to transport and store once they're reported stolen. It'd be more sensible to just steal the packages on the truck. The drone is "small", can be transported and stored without it being visible, so it get's lots of points there. Also I'd be concerned about stupid people/assholes and the shiny new drone. That said, Cameras+GPS, not to mention you don't want to steal the drone if it's delivering to you because it'd be kinda obvious.

no1youknowz 7y ago

I can envisage a future where you have huge drones with landing pads that fly between hubs in a set amount of times. This will then allow individuals to request a drone from a 3rd party. Load up the package and program the drone for the final destination. The drone flies to the LZ drone where it lands and waits until its main destination and then resumes flight until it delivers the package. The drone could have a wallet where it takes the initial payment from the customer. Which a % goes to the drone operator, when the drone lands a % goes to the LZ operator and any other stops. Having essentially P2P delivery system will be a total game changer!

marsRoverDev 7y ago
I think with today's technology there's no need to build a card reader into the drone itself. It can just be handled online prior to delivery (or after successful delivery).

god_bless_texas 7y ago

Interesting, the FAA has announced the first drone delivery air carrier approval in the US will happen in April. I would have thought Flirtey would win this race but according to the NYT the only application listed is from Google Wing.

justtopost 7y ago
Strong arm lobbying has its uses.

dbuder 7y ago

I will rest easier when Skynet agrees not to film us all from their ever present drones.

NotPaidToPost 7y ago

You can now have shrimps literally thrown onto the barbie from the sky. We live in the future.

hpkuarg 7y ago

133,000 Packages Lost as Google Cancels Wing Service in Midair

tdhoot 7y ago
Doesn’t repeating this trope on every Google related topic get old? We get it, they cancel projects. Hahaha?
- slashink 7y ago
  I’d agree that it would have gotten old if this was an isolated past of Google but fact is that Google shuts downs products left and right even today, recently Google Inbox. People will keep making fun of Google for this as long as Google keep throwing products at the wall that they don’t intend to keep supporting.
  - tdhoot 7y ago
    Googles inclination to deprecate products is common knowledge at this point. What value is added by restating the obvious in every Google related thread?
    - anoncake 7y ago
      To make sure it won't stop being common knowledge.
    - hpkuarg 7y ago
      It's an (admittedly somewhat low-value) homage to the classic Onion article.[0] [0] https://www.theonion.com/133-dead-as-delta-cancels-flight-in-midair-1819568121 https://www.theonion.com/133-dead-as-delta-cancels-flight-in...
  - v7p1Qbt1im 7y ago
    Except, you know, this is Wing, a separate entity. Besides. It almost sounds like many people would like them to stop releasing products all together. Market research is not yet at a point where you can predict if something will be 100% successful.

dejaime 7y ago

To be discontinued...

bamboozled 7y ago

It's difficult to imagine that this is ok from a privacy standpoint. I mean yes, the claim is that there is a "low-resolution fitted for debugging purposes", but why would Google stop there? There are now cameras flying around Canberra and there is seemingly not a single way for a civilian to differentiate between a Google delivery done or a fake drone used for spying. There will be no way for people to opt-out of this. I see this will end up similar to the way people who send emails to Gmail users cannot opt out of Google being able to use their personal information without consent. You will be on camera whether you like it or not. Canberra also supports large native bird populations, this can't be too healthy for their stress levels as this scales up.

jrockway 7y ago
It is surprising to me that this is the straw that broke the camel's back. There are billions of Android users that appear to be browsing the web on their phones but are actually taking pictures of you (you personally!) and uploading them to Google. There are planes flying around taking pictures. There are drones flying around taking pictures. There are satellites flying around taking pictures. The cat is out of the bag. There are pictures of you. Not sure why that should stop drone delivery (or self-driving cars for that matter, which guess what, have cameras on them).
- ryanhuff 7y ago
  Are you claiming that Google takes and transfers images of the user as they browse the web on their Android device?
- bamboozled 7y ago
  There are not satellites taking photos of people as frequently or as in close proximity as these things will. Google would literally be able to identify even how healthy you’re looking by image classification. To you’re point about Androids, yeah, it’s not healthy or good that the thing is effectively a data mining apparatus. So now, even if you decide to leave the phone at home to get some privacy, now you’re going to have to bring a disguise too.
7y ago

lm28469 7y ago

What's the use case besides delivering to remote areas ? I can get Zipline's mission [0], but personal deliveries ... ? A UPS truck with hundreds of packages surely is more efficient than an army of drones in urban areas. https://x.company/projects/wing/ https://x.company/projects/wing/ > "Wing is developing a new method of transporting goods that’s faster, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly" What's the advantage compared to an electric van ? > 27% of greenhouse gas emissions come from transportation. I mean, yeah sure, but changing the last 3km of the delivery from van to drone won't change the fact that the coffee beans or new iphone you just bought came from the other side of the world via shipping containers which is 99%+ of the pollution associated to the delivery. [1] [0] https://flyzipline.com https://flyzipline.com [1] https://medium.com/@victoria27/heres-how-much-pollution-shipping-containers-and-freight-trucks-cause-b358cb034c70 https://medium.com/@victoria27/heres-how-much-pollution-ship...

bagacrap 7y ago
Your medium link doesn't support the 99% claim. There's no way the last mile is less than 1%. Strikes me as obvious that cargo ships are vastly more efficient per pound than a FedEx truck.
govg 7y ago
One advantage could be speed - drones will allow you to move faster for smaller orders. Just like you have the shipping container -> warehouse -> trucks -> local warehouse -> smaller trucks -> home, you can extend this to respond faster to customer requests, as well as not involve any humans in the whole last mile delivery system (avoiding costs etc)
marsRoverDev 7y ago
I imagine this would be used for Immediacy solutions. Amazon Prime Now being a great example of which. It would cost more, but per order it's probably cheaper than a guy on a bike given guy on said bike + insurance + overheads will take a bigger cut than the drone will.
- truebosko 7y ago

spectramax 7y ago

No one talks about the noise. Every time I read about drone delivery, this major aspect is omitted from the discussion but I believe it would be a nuisance to have drones droning around all the time making a huge amount of noise. Airplanes make a lot of noise and it is still a hot topic in neighborhoods adjacent to airports. Little hobby drones make some noise but when you’ve got a drone lifting 5kg of weight, it’s going to make a tremendous amount of noise.

Reedx 7y ago
~1/3rd of this article is dedicated to noise. :) Trials of the drones had attracted complaints from residents in Bonython, Canberra, who said they were noisy and intrusive. The Bonython Against Drones campaign said the devices could be heard from "a long way off, both coming and leaving". "When they do a delivery drop they hover over the site and it sounds like an extremely loud, squealing vacuum cleaner," the group said on its website. In response, Wing said it had developed a quieter drone. The aviation authority says Wing must use this quieter drone for its commercial service.
- maxxxxx 7y ago
  "quieter" doesn't mean "quiet". I am very doubtful that they can reduce it to bearable levels.
mertd 7y ago
> No one talks about the noise. That's almost the only thing the article talks about.
TheMagicHorsey 7y ago
I think fixed-wing drones make less noise than the Quadcopter ones.

atonse 7y ago

Are people really even considering this given how noisy it is?

swamp40 7y ago

Curious if mufflers for electric motors have been invented? Does the noise come from the motor, or from the prop cutting thru the air?

ansible 7y ago
The motors themselves don't make much noise. The noise is from the props themselves.

js2 7y ago

I thought this was being done in rural China since mid last year by JD.com: https://www.economist.com/business/2018/06/09/how-e-commerce-with-drone-delivery-is-taking-flight-in-china https://www.economist.com/business/2018/06/09/how-e-commerce... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-07-03/china-s-on-the-fast-track-to-making-uav-drone-deliveries https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-07-03/china-s-o... And in Japan: > Rakuten has been offering drone delivery in Japan since 2016 and unmanned vehicle trials since 2018. It said that working with JD — which claims to have racked up 400,000 minutes of delivery flight time — will “accelerate the development and commercialization” of its human-free last-mile delivery efforts. https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/21/jd-com-drones-rakuten/ https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/21/jd-com-drones-rakuten/

rhacker 7y ago

> Wing said the feedback obtained during its trials had been "valuable" and it hoped to "continue the dialogue". That's code for they have asked their lawyer to see what was legal and if they can simply ignore the complaints. We continue to wage war on silence. The other day I was far the heck out there on a trail and the only things I could hear were squirrels birds and a few other things. My soul was at peace. We can't have that in cities or even suburbs any more. Instead we get BUMP BUMP BUMP from passing cars. The level of anxiety we get from cities is insane and people don't really even understand this until they are 60 years old. I'm 38 and I understand it.

yaacov 7y ago
I don’t get anxiety from cities. I love cities. Your experience is common but not universal.
- grandmczeb 7y ago
  Same - I actually like city noise. It’s really annoying when people assume their preferences extend to everyone.
- zapzupnz 7y ago
  Indeed, I prefer noise. Silence makes me feel ill at ease, like nobody's around, like something terrible could happen and I have no recourse to anybody. I don't feel safe in silence, but whenever I tell anybody this, I'm poo-pooed as being silly.
bsimpson 7y ago
If only there were quieter places, out in the countryside, where you could have Really Uninterrupted Relaxing And Leisure - hey, we could even call them that: R.U.R.A.L.
- anoncake 7y ago
  That is no excuse for making cities louder than they need to be.

ansible 7y ago

The design of the drones is interesting. I've though that the original Project Wing design (flying wing that transitions 90 degrees for vertical hover) would have been more efficient. Or a larger version of the E-flite X-Vert VTOL: https://www.horizonhobby.com/x-vert-vtol-bnf-basic-efl1850?gclid=CjwKCAjwy7vlBRACEiwAZvdx9rloOrrq_gmUq3V812ZqovBKKwQENX-9CJ4S2dCslGrB3cNP_FQjeBoCMssQAvD_BwE https://www.horizonhobby.com/x-vert-vtol-bnf-basic-efl1850?g...

nickparker 7y ago
I suspect they're still headed that way long term, and just went with this design to get testing ASAP because the pusher configuration has more challenges. The flip maneuver is difficult to integrate with their sky crane style system. You absolutely don't want to tilt your payload because that ruins lots of foods (coffee, pizza) so you either need some sort of pivot mechanism for your payload attachment smack dab in the middle of the craft, or you have to do some daring aerobatics to finish retracting the crane as you begin low speed level flight. Their noise problem is almost entirely because of those tiny propellers - A pusher wing with a pair of much larger (10+"), slower props could be pretty quiet.
- jpm_sd 7y ago
  You are semi-correct. The tail sitter design was abandoned because it was too difficult/unstable to control while using the winch. The core team that started Wing quit X awhile back and formed a new company, Skydio, which has built an incredibly cool drone for the purpose of high-tech narcissism: https://www.skydio.com/ https://www.skydio.com/ https://www.pcmag.com/review/366306/skydio-r1 https://www.pcmag.com/review/366306/skydio-r1

dreamcompiler 7y ago

I guess the good news is that when Google inevitably cancels this project the barrier to entry for other companies is not very high.

Mtinie 7y ago

"They will not be allowed to fly over crowds or main roads." I know this is specific to the current set of guidelines, but if I imagine this service launching in my part of the world I'm unsure how it would even work with this requirement. To go from one side of my city to the other you have to traverse a number of main roads. If you're setting up base stations all over the place to launch from to keep from breaking across main roads I can't see how this solves the distribution problem (though it may solve the "we have to pay humans to deliver packages and takeout food" problem...)

aeternus 7y ago
The FAA is currently considering relaxing this requirement.

alexissantos 7y ago

For a moment, I thought the drones were delivering homes, and I was very excited. I am still excited, but less so now.

tuberelay 7y ago

Can engineers please critique the following idea: Design city size "Spidercam" style delivery systems https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDGAa6ww7S4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDGAa6ww7S4 3-4 tall pylons with heavy duty winches and kevlar cable linked in the middle to hold a winch system that can lower a delivery box anywhere in the city. 1/4 inch kevlar rope weighs 2lb per 100ft, therefore a 2 mile kevlar rope would weigh 210lbs, but has a load bearing capacity of 9500lbs. So this system would allow accurate delivery anywhere in a 2mile x 2 mile area. Potentially these could be coupled to allow transfer between areas to allow deliveries to be passed along a chain. Multiple winches could be stacked on pylons to allow multiple sets of ropes, with winches which are near to delivery/pickup points moved downwards and to lower rope tension to avoid other winches/ropes bumping into them.

derp_dee_derp 7y ago
I can tell you why this will never be a thing: the infrastructure cost is way too high. Not just the cost of materials and labor, either. I'm talking social, political, and environmental costs. people would fight this left and right. Power lines are already considered an eye sore in many places and are required to be underground. good luck convincing people that a power line with a bunch of moving boxes on it is going to be any better. its essentially a gondola for packages and no one wants that in their backyard.
rtkwe 7y ago
You'll have large shadows defined by where buildings are in relation to the pylons and the shuttle would not be able to descend below the roof line in many areas outside of a subdivision with low 2 story houses depending on how tall the towers are. In addition you can't really do this anywhere there is going to be air traffic with the current systems as you'll need to shut it down whenever a helicopter wants to fly through.

gordon_freeman 7y ago

I'm wondering what exactly Google will use this home delivery by drone tech for? Their Google Express service is nice but it's not their main business and this makes a lot more sense if it was launched by e-commerce giant like Amazon. I'm just wondering how Google will convert this tech in a viable business?

v7p1Qbt1im 7y ago
The main area Assistant is worse at compared to Alexa is shopping. They kind of need to have their own e-commerce platform. You could (eventually) combine that with drone delivery.