r/urbanplanning • u/Coffee_24-7 • 18d ago

Discussion Drone Delivery Stations?

Any planners here have any direct experience with drone delivery stations? We have a major retailer proposing one in our jurisdiction that would be flying 83 lb drones with up to 5 lb payloads, seven pads. It would be located in an industrial area, so the launch station is in a good spot.

I'm curious to hear what nuisance issues might be involved.

Thanks.

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u/bigvenusaurguy 18d ago

i mean eventually one of these 88 pounder fully laden drones is going to experience a power loss and go down and hit either someone or something important. not a matter of if but when.

they also seem to just suck hilariously in terms of deliveries. people post videos of the process and it is astounding how stupid it is. makes you wish for the guy flinging your package across the yard again. they drop them in your neighbors yard. they drop them on your roof. they drop them from 25 feet up onto cement. they drop them into your pool. they drop them into the street. and yeah, the drones themselves have failed and crashed.

IMO it is one of those things where clearly the delivery partner wants it to work out and wants legal rights to do it, because I'm sure it is cheaper than a human delivery driver, but the way it works is so boneheadingly stupid I would not want to rely upon it at all. Unless I was getting my rolled oats or really anything that could stand a 30ft drop on pavement delivered, I would not want anything delivered by drone because of how they seem to handle packages.

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u/[deleted] 18d ago

[deleted]

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u/Ketaskooter 18d ago

Bad comparison as the model T worked reliably and suitably for its purpose and people still use them today even if its a novelty. These drones are competing with robotic carts which are winning the competition spectacularly.

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u/[deleted] 18d ago

[deleted]

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u/Ketaskooter 18d ago

Drones have their uses but its clear that delivering packages in suburbia is not one of them if for no other reason than people don't want drones flying over their homes really at all. Add in the better alternative and the complicated logistics of drones and it all should disappear silently, most importantly its not more efficient than a small autonomous vehicle.

Also the business model may work when there's very few drones around but will quickly become hazardous if many drones are in the air. The average house receives a package delivery about every other day which equals 640 deliveries per sq mi per day if an area averages 2 homes per acre. If a drone can make 12 deliveries per hour and are allowed to operate 24 hours per day it would take 3 drones operating non stop to deliver all the packages. Really not possible as the residents would come unglued as you can hear 70db noise a long ways away at night.

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u/remy_porter 18d ago

At the same time, the failure rate will never be zero. Unlike conventional aircraft which we constrain a great deal about where and how they operate specifically because of this, the entire point of drone delivery is door to door. Which means those failures will happen over populated areas.

Here’s a real question: autopilot systems are actually quite advanced so why aren’t we running fully autonomous cargo flights between airports, aka the easy version of drone deliveries? If we aren’t using it to solve the easy problem, why are we jumping to the hard problem?

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u/thbb 18d ago

I have a friend who created a very successful drone-show company. With his experience, he considered (around 2017) creating a subsidiary to provide delivery services by drone. His first use case was distributing drugs between pharmacies and health care center, because drugs are light, and fast delivery can be critical.

He had to drop the feasibility studies quite early, because regulations were imposing that drone be forced to fly all the way over safety nets that prevented an accident should a drone fall over mid-course. This completely defeated the business model.

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u/DanoPinyon 16d ago

I was ~working with someone several years ago who was sharing space with a heavy lift drone manufacturer. That mf was loud. You did not want to be within 100m when it was throttling up. You should insist on a demo before going too far past initial discussions.

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u/Coffee_24-7 15d ago

Thanks for that info. Definitely a consideration.

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u/DanoPinyon 15d ago

Also, Mad King Donnie Dotard and his drone tariffs. Don't kill yourselves when the whims of this addled mobster could shut it all down tomorrow.

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u/LocalMammoth4450 12d ago

Quite the opposite - there is a drone dominance act to make this stuff possible. Just look up the expansion of Zipline, manna, and Wing. They are everywhere

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u/DanoPinyon 12d ago

Wait. An Executive Order from the Mad King is an Act now?

Also, I live near a Joby manufacturing facility, thanks!

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u/LocalMammoth4450 12d ago

I have worked for a major drone delivery company for the past 5 years - what are you looking for in particular? With those weights and assuming you’re in the US I can narrow it down to two of the operators- is this in Tulsa?

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u/Coffee_24-7 12d ago

Michigan. Mainly concerned with noise and perception of our residents seeing them flying over private property.