[Lushh]

Following a recent announcement by Uber Elevate, the company will conduct a drone test service delivering fast food in San Diego this summer.

Deliveries will be made at "designated safe landing zones" where an Uber courier will receive it and deliver by hand to the consumer.

McDonald's, one of their partners is in the process of preparing special packaging to ensure that food stays hot and intact during flight.

[Netherrealmer]

I can see the homeless people using self made slingshots against those drones..

They wont care if the food fell on the floor, 5 second rule is a thing.

[Lushh]

I can see the homeless people using self made slingshots against those drones..

They wont care if the food fell on the floor, 5 second rule is a thing.

I don't think they will need to do that in San Diego though. Only if they want to be bad.

[MysticMoons]

I want them to deliver me some wings now please.
It would be awesome if they flew some to me.

[Lushh]

I want them to deliver me some wings now please.
It would be awesome if they flew some to me.

The drones won't be flying to private homes though. You will still receive it like a regular delivery by a courier. They have their special areas for drop offs and someone will pick it up and take it to you. I bet it would be cool if drones were dropping off food at your place.

[Netherrealmer]

I can still see homeless people and bored teens targeting these drones. I had seen a drone getting shot by kids with pellet guns.

[Lushh]

I had seen a drone getting shot by kids with pellet guns.

I know of cases like this and the individuals were charged in the same way as if they had shot down a crewed aircraft. They fall under the same aviation laws and even when flying over private property it's a federal crime to damage them.

[Netherrealmer]

Drone robbing will be a crime of the future. I can see people will try to salvage them

[mrki444]

Drone robbing will be a crime of the future. I can see people will try to salvage them

Especially when drones start deliver more worth stuff than food. Prepare dron with net which will hunt delivery drone. Throw a net on delivery drone. Because of malfunction dron will start emergency landing.
Just parts from drone can be worth plus cargo.

[Lushh]

Especially when drones start deliver more worth stuff than food. Prepare dron with net which will hunt delivery drone. Throw a net on delivery drone. Because of malfunction dron will start emergency landing.

Some time ago I read that they can even be used to hack other devices. In the same way people use phone number and email spoofing, hackers can use GPS spoofing to manipulate drones. They send false coordinates to the receiver to make it look like the drone is on the right path but it's really being directed to a different destination or they can deliberately crash it. From here they can access and use the data as they please.

[mrki444]

Some time ago I read that they can even be used to hack other devices. In the same way people use phone number and email spoofing, hackers can use GPS spoofing to manipulate drones. They send false coordinates to the receiver to make it look like the drone is on the right path but it's really being directed to a different destination or they can deliberately crash it. From here they can access and use the data as they please.

This is much more advanced version. My example would be more wide and more present. Especially for people which stole food.

[Lushh]

This is much more advanced version. My example would be more wide and more present. Especially for people which stole food.

Especially when drones start deliver more worth stuff than food

Such as what?

[mrki444]

Especially when drones start deliver more worth stuff than food

Such as what?

Electronic equipment, clothes, micro chips, medicine...

[peachpurple]

Wait a minutes, which is cheaper? Using drone or grabfood bikers ? Which is cost effective ?

[ptrikha21]

Just checked this discussion.
I am curious to know how it went.
Was it successful?
What all challenges were faced?

[Lushh]

Wait a minutes, which is cheaper? Using drone or grabfood bikers ? Which is cost effective ?

According to Uber, drone deliveries would be three times faster than bikes and cars. The average delivery over a 1.5 mile distance runs 21 minutes. With drones they say this takes 7 minutes. Delivery fees also would remain same as the regular Uber Eats rates.

How much Uber stands to gain or lose, I'm not able to say but I read an article in Forbes magazine claiming that drone delivery was 90% cheaper than deliveries by car. Taking into consideration the number of deliveries a drone could complete in an hour, one CEO reported, "our cost is one tenth the cost of using the road".

-- 21 Mar 2022, 20:50 --

Just checked this discussion.
I am curious to know how it went.
Was it successful?
What all challenges were faced?

It was a test project but the only tests I've heard of so far were the 'limited' ones from the San Diego State University. Since then I have not seen any udpates as to whether drone deliveries continued throughout the summer as promised.

[ptrikha21]

Sometimes, the results of some of the studies are not made public till a long time.
Its when such new innovations are about to come in a bigger commercial domain do we come to know more about them.

[Sojourn]

They should launch it as a pilot project and target a specific small geographical area. They would proactively ask for customer feedback to gain more confidence before launching large scale.

[KityCat]

I want to see how it turns out , because on one hand , yes it is a next step in delivery process but ,
What if they drones doesn't reach in the designated "landing" area ? What if the drone gets attacked by birds or get caught up in rain ? Or something even worse could happen

[MysticMoons]

Wow so you are saying they can just fly tacos to me? I want them to fly me an order of nachos please lol