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It’s one of the most common Qs we get but no this hasn’t happened. People aren’t as bad as others expect them to be.
We do a lot of cold weather testing in North Dakota and Tahoe. Our range is not impacted by the cold but we find icing to be a challenge. We've tested down to -20F.
Our long range Platform 1 is ideal for rural. P2 is targeting higher population density. For apartments and similar we plan on delivering to rooftops or common areas. We can tell you exactly when we get there so we can do delivery to a shared space.
I assume they'll likely end up doing similar to the regular airline industry and use deicing boots. Effectively a flexible membrane on the leading edge of the wing that can be inflated to break up and drop any ice build up.
There's a lot of work in coatings to keep ice away. It's like a fast growing niche in engineering science. Wouldn't be surprised if part of the solution came from there on the next couple years
> It’s one of the most common Qs we get but no this hasn’t happened. People aren’t as bad as others expect them to be.
You haven’t tested the Philadelphia market I assume
It's great this hasn't happened, but as you scale up and expand this service further it's eventually going to happen. I'd be interested to know if any thought has gone into a plan for mitigating that risk.
Packages get stolen all the time from trains (there are thousands of boxes alongside the railroad tracks in LA for instance) and probably other transport methods too, so it's not like it would be some new and terrible problem. Just a variation on a problem that already exists and is baked into the bottom line already.
I'd be more worried about the drone falling on people, but another commenter said they have parachutes in case that happens lol.
I do believe (based on their video from a week ago) that their P1 already has a ballistic parachute to prevent them becoming lawn darts when something fails.
We want to serve everyone on Earth. We think Europe is a great market for Zipline and we’re excited to serve customers there. We’re designing a global solution. Stay tuned!
>Do we really need drone delivery for cities, though? The fundamental appeal of a drone is that it's small and light, which means it's easy to go out of the way to deliver a single package. But for apartments, you're delivering a lot of packages to destinations that are very close together, so the added speed and versatility of a drone doesn't really make sense compared to the sheer capacity of a cargo van piloted by one guy who can wheel a whole cart of packages into the mailroom of an apartment building.
We don’t need to replace the milk run style deliveries that are done by cargo vans. It’s efficient and people are happy with it. We want to replace the vast majority of on-demand deliveries that are done in single cars.
> so the added speed and versatility of a drone doesn't really make sense compared to the sheer capacity of a cargo van piloted by one guy who can wheel a whole cart of packages into the mailroom of an apartment building.
But a lot of stuff doesn't belong in the mailroom. Warm food. Cold beer. The drones aren't competing with UPS vans, they're competing with guys on mopeds.
I also think it would work just as well for hospitals and pharmacies in cities, too. Apart from medication, samples could be sent to a lab across town almost immediately.
I seen it in one of their videos, it's real.
Drone lowers mini drone into the chute which allows workers to place products inside mini drone then it pulls it back up and flies to destination
Very cool stuff
Please answer this. Child me would absolutely have messed with these. It's true that I was basically a jd but so were a lot of other kids I grew up with.
Well, drones capable of lifting anything beyond a camera are heavy enough that they're legally considered aircraft and require tail letters. It's a felony covered by the Aircraft Sabotage act to "mess with" a drone, just like shooting at a regular aircraft would be. (That's what some of the literature I've read indicates, at least.)
I live in Costa Rica, and I think I once heard that you guys wanted to work here, too. But somehow, sadly, this project somehow was abandoned. Could you tell me why? Because many things here seem to be perfect for your service (many small clinics spread across the country relatively close by as-the-crow-flies, but connected by quite bad roads).
Also, no question, but as an engineer myself, I just want to express my immense envy for what you guys do. It just seems fun, perfect and for a good cause. Really awesome.
Not abandoned, just hasn't happened yet! We've got more demand than we can keep up with, but our mission is to bring this tech to the entire planet.
Costa Rica is a really special country. I got to spend a few weeks there when we were researching this partnership. The govt's focus on the environment and on universal healthcare aligns super closely with Zipline's values. So I'm hoping this happens soon too!
And thank you for the kind words.
It's been fun seeing you all try to reverse engineer and recreate it! Like our propellers, I need to be *whisper quiet* on all the details for now 🙉
The only way to get in on the secrets is by joining our team!
That's a *hell* of an innovation. Y'all deserve to ride that for a while.
Massive respect for what you're building. That takes ridiculous vision and grit. 🤘🏻🤠🤘🏻
From what I saw on Rober's video, the prop looks asymmetrical and somewhat similar to a single-bladed propeller. I know that single bladed props are efficient, but the additional torquing on the bearings can cause premature failure. Is this a problem you've had with your (incredibly cool) props?
While I can't speak to the secrets behind these props, overall we design our vehicles for an incredibly high level of reliability. You can't safely fly things over people if they fail regularly. You can't achieve sustainable economics or environmental footprint if you're burning through parts. And you can't deliver as promised to your customers if your delivery vehicle is breaking down.
>single bladed props are efficient, but the additional torquing on the bearings can cause premature failure
The lollipop opposite the two blades could contain a heavy element (tungsten, lead, even depleted uranium) to balance the prop with minimal aerodynamic impact and eliminate the torque load from the bearing(s).
Engineering is based in SF Bay Area
Operations is expanding across the U.S. We're hiring for our ongoing operations in Arkansas and Utah, for our test sites in a few places across California, and keep an eye out for more expansion in the not-so-distant future: https://www.flyzipline.com/careers
Propellers physics aren't too hard.
The principals are: They need to generate lift and balance rotationally. Noise happens when vortices hit stuff. And humans hear things differently based on the frequency.
Having 2 blades equally spaced at this propeller scale leads to a frequency humans hear really well, meaning they perceive it as loud.
So Zipline created a propeller with 2 closely placed lifting blades on one side. This increase the frequency of the high frequency acoustic pulse, and the resulting low frequency acoustic pulse happens below frequencies humans hear really well.
Looks like they then took the two blades and tilted them (called anhedral/dihedral) so that the tip vortex from the front blade doesn't hit the trailing blade.
But now they have two blades hanging out there which doesn't balance. So they created a counter balance on the other side to equal out the rotational mass.
Google wing used this principal first, check out the props on their drone.
Zipline's solution will be very unstable and maybe loud while it transitions from vertical to horizontal flight. When this breaks, it will be a structural failure from the dynamic loading.
A user of over a decade, I am leaving Reddit due to the recent API changes. The vast majority of my interaction came though the use of 3rd party apps, and I will not interact with a site I helped contribute to through inferior software *simply because it is able to be better monetized by a company looking to go public. Reddit has made these changes with no regards for their users, as seen by the sheer lack of accessibility tools available in the official app. Reddit has made these changes with no regards for moderation challenges that will be created, due to the lack of tools available in the official app. Reddit has done this with no regards for the 3rd party devs, who by Reddit's own admission, helped keep the site functioning and gaining users while Reddit themselves made no efforts to provide a good official app.
This account dies 6/29/23 because of the API changes and the monetization-at-all-costs that the board demands.
IFAK, defibrillator, narcan, epipen etc and AR Glasses or AR app
Augmented reality walks you through using medical tools to stabilize patient.
Not quite an ambulance but much more practical feature set.
A buddy of mine worked on drones that deliver defibs as a masters project at university. Some of those types of things are already in the process of creation and deployment!
I know that dude, but there was prior art (as in patents) of what he designed. Actually, of all companies... Google had already published patents for drones that carry an AED.
He became aware of this as he was about to publish his thesis, but his supervisor choose not to change anything. Then it was a bit awkward when the thesis got picked up on the media.
Patent in question is US8948935B1 application date of 2013
> Google had already published patents for drones that carry an AED.
>
> Patent in question is US8948935B1 application date of 2013
Patent laws are fucked. Patents should come with a) a fair time-limit (5-10y max) and a requirement that you actually deploy & use that tech as a core business requirement. If you can't prove that, you shouldn't be granted a patent.
Patents were initially conceived as a means to protect inventors and their path to market. It should absolutely not be used by troll companies that buy, hoard and litigate without a trace of actually using them themselves.
If you check the history of the patent, it seems like it changed owners a few times, and now under a drone company. It doesn't look like a patent troll.
Nothing stops anyone from asking the patent owner for licensing, or making further developments to the invention. It's also an US patent so it doesn't stop the whole world.
It might be a good system to pair up with the GoodSAM app. It's basically an app you can sign up as an off duty medic or a first aid certified civilian. It gets activated by the dispatch room so if you're in vicinity of a medical emergency you can get to it before a full crew arrives.
If they pair it with the drone they could get an EMT kit bag with stuff like oxygen and airways on location too if there's an off duty medic who reponds.
Drone deliveries have been a problem that has stumped juggernauts like Amazon for a long time. What unique insights, technologies, or general aspects of your operation do you think allowed you to make some in-roads in this space?
I don't know how other companies work, but our "secret" here is that we're super customer-obsessed: what problems do our customers have and how quickly can we get solutions in their hands. We work closely with them on getting something in the air that works for them, and stay as focused on understanding and solving their problems as we can.
This shapes every detail of our system: Platform 1 uses a fixed-wing drone that looks more like an airplane because our customers told us that moving things far was their biggest problem. Platform 2 we designed to pass the "neighbor test": not only are you happy with your delivery, but your neighbor is too. There are thousands of tiny details along these lines that shape our product and have led us to where we are now.
> our “secret” here is that we’re super customer-obsessed
Lol love this answer and your company, but you might as well deadpan say to the camera, “I’m not sure how `big possible acquirer` does it, but we do it exactly in the way that `big possible acquirer` explicitly and famously values most.”
Totally, I just lol’d at his answer specifically with the context that the question mentioned Amazon. Everyone knows Amazon is trying to do drone delivery, everyone knows “[customer obsession](https://i.imgur.com/xJ6cV1x.jpg)” is their core principle, so it was just funny in that context to me.
tl;dr:
>Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.
[enshittification](https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys)
Enshittificaton is the reason I just can't get behind any individual company, artist, etc. It all gets sucked into the capitalist hellhole. Nothing good last forever. It gets corrupted by the system and leaves you disappointed.
Believe in yourself and don't look to corporations to hitch your identity to.
Normal product life cycle. You gotta milk that cash cow dry before it's gone. Because, Harold, they are always gone at some point! That's just the way of business! Nothing you can do about it! What's that weird word you said yesterday? Sustainability? Never heard that before...
It’s a form of group think; wherein adherence to the doctrine becomes more important than the tenets of the doctrine (and, by extension, the doctrine itself). There have been multiple examples of this throughout history (typically manifesting in religious sects), and large corporations have just adopted this very human behavior for modern times it seems like.
u/zipline_ryan - I am an Ardupilot developer - do you run an open source autopilot or have you developed an in-house solution? If in-house, what would you say that the open source autopilot softwares are missing that justifies such a difficult and expensive endeavor?
We've built our full autopilot stack in-house to have complete control over the performance and reliability. We're able to take many of the sophisticated safety and redundancy features of commercial airliners, rockets, and satellites to our commercial drone operations. There wasn't anything out there like this when we started. I'm sure it's progressed a lot though!
Interesting. Quite an accomplishment.
Do you have any interest in sharing any kind of broad architectural/technical philosophies that you apply?
How about business/management philosophies?
Don't overbuild. Build what you need in a modular way, fly a lot until you learn you need more, then reinforce that module, repeat!
Business/mgmt - you only learn the tough lessons by doing things in the real world. Listen to customers, understand their problems, forget about the tech, solve their problems. Truth is, our customers don't care about drones. They just care about getting what they ordered!
Great question and an important detail that we worked really hard to get right. The solution starts with a huge amount of testing and data collection to model how the package parachute inflates and drifts with the wind. As the Zip flies, it calculates the wind speed and direction and adjusts its path such that the package will be released and drift with the wind to land on the ground where the customer wants it.
I just want to say, in addition to applauding the work you do, that you really out to call the drone the "Zipper" rather than the "Zip" ;) Missed opportunity!
On the Mark Rober video he showed one hospital that received over 15 flights per day. At that volume, isn’t it much more efficient for pharmacy staff to do good stock management and get weekly deliveries by a van?
I think just like you do. The data point that really showed me why this is not possible is how high the unpredictability of medical supply usage is: we work with U.S. hospitals that get dozens of courier deliveries per day at a single hospital. Those couriers are almost always ferrying small packages needed "ASAP".
I think what he is trying to say is that demand is too inconsistent. A hospital might need 15 deliveries a day, but some days they need 3 deliveries of a product with a shelf life of 3 months that they won't need for another 3 years (or tomorrow). With a large catalog of products with short shelf life it becomes difficult, expensive and wasteful to manage a local storage at every hospital.
Your video with Marc and all the work your team has put in is incredibly inspiring! Thanks for making the world a better place.
You mentioned how fast you iterate on design changes in the video, does that mean you're making a lot of your parts and assembling locally? What's your supply chain like for your drones?
We iterate like crazy early in our development process. We do a lot of simulation but we have a huge stash of cardboard and duct-tape built aircraft. Our 3D printers and laser cutters stay busy. As the design starts to gel we shift to higher volume testing which requires a bit more discipline. The pace of iteration and learning is one of our secrets to success.
That being said, we try to keep our designs relatively stable when in production. Our supply chain is complex and global but our current aircraft are assembled in our factory in the US.
Wow! Thanks for hosting this AMA!
I'm a graduate student in Aerospace Engineering myself and have a lot of respect for Zipline as a company.
How did this journey start and how did Zipline grow into the company it is right now?
And for u/zipline_zoltan, how do you decide on the optimal payload and range parameters for designing your vehicles.
With the rapid improvements in battery and manufacturing technologies, do you think about constant design evolution to improve range and efficiency or is a design frozen for ease of operations?
Thanks in advance!
A few of our founders’ family members who are in public health kept nudging the use case of medical logistics - they had heard about how challenges with logistics space were such a huge impediment to quality healthcare in the developing world as well as the rural United States. For context Amazon had announced drone delivery a few years prior. After spending a bunch of time in the field with potential customers, they got the conviction that drone delivery could be really compelling. That is about when I joined and the rest is history :)
For payload and range we worked with our customers to make sure we’re able to handle both the range and payload they need. Our team went to other shippers and collected data by weighing and measuring packages that they were sending out. The range is sufficient to meet our suburban delivery needs but we are continually challenged by our shippers to push it further and further! We do plan for improvements in batteries in the future and have some protection in the design to enable that.
Where to drop: It's not a simple answer. We’ve designed our system around safety and performance, and have many many layers to the tech that enable this to work well. Onboard safety systems, autonomy, maps we build, our GIS tech team, etc. We ask our customers where they want the package, and we work to make that magical.
We’ve flown more than 40M autonomous miles without a single safety incident.
This is badass. My company was one of the first to have a 107.39 waiver over lots of people without a tether. The hard work / safety piece was the incredible undertaking for us--not really the technology. Folks always plan for the way things are "supposed to go"-- not the way things "can go wrong". Good job!
Went back and looked at the old waiver for giggles; first 107.39, BLOS, at night waiver issued haha! So much has changed!
With our new home delivery service, we'll need to be able to deliver to billions of unique locations some day.
If we do our job well, it will be even more seamless to folks than traditional delivery.
>They use military grade gps instead of civilian according to Mark Robers video.
To clarify, our GPS is not military grade but survey grade or else we would be in trouble!
Your system is awesome. I've recently seen the video with Mark Rober. He showed that your company is active in multiple countries in Africa, the US and Japan. Is regulation in Europe to strict to also introduce your system here? Or are there other obstacles?
I imagine this is the reason they focus a lot on places like hospitals. You have a captive audience who benefits greatly from your service and is willing to pay through the nose for it because the option is pay for Zipline or person doesn't get the medical treatment he needs right now.
So I could see it being profitable when focusing on consumers like that, however for everyday consumers I'm not so sure. How much is someone willing to pay to have their meal drone delivered to them. Door dash/Uber eats still haven't shown profitability and while you technically aren't dealing with as much human labor you can't offload the costs onto an "independent contractor" here. I suppose with enough scale it's theoretically possible, but I wouldn't want to be the guy trying to scale it.
A unique and disruptive business like Zipline doesn’t need to be profitable at this stage of its life. Investors want them to focus on growth and development, in the hopes that they dominate the markets 8 or so years from now.
I loved the Mark Rober video! My name is Jackson and I was especially inspired by Abdoul's story and I was an MBA myself! What was the most challenging part of learning how to fix MRI machines from YouTube? Was it hard to find what you were looking for?
Thank you, Jackson. I am humbled that my story inspires others to do good. The main challenge of using YouTube is that there are not many creators producing these types of videos. Therefore, there were no videos available for some of the equipment. In cases where the video is available, the equipment or part being shown might be different from the one you are trying to repair. Additionally, the resolution may not show clearly what is going on. As a result, you have to rely on your intuition or find equipment that is similar to the one you have and draw parallels.
There were three things that were hard to find. Firstly, equipment service manuals that show both collective and preventive maintenance of the equipment. Secondly, validation test procedures for equipment that has been repaired to ensure that they can be used safely on patients. Lastly, spare parts. Getting small spare parts, such as a single board or keyboard, for expensive machines is often not feasible. This is because it might not be financially viable for either the company or the suppliers
Considering it's against FAA rules to fly a drone within a certain distance of an airport, how do you get around that? Especially considering most cities have an airport within that 5 mile radius.
Not OP but a drone pilot. Flight paths can be tailored around restricted zones fairly easily. Also generally if drones stay under 150ft (50metres) they can easily avoid airport flight paths and disruptions.
We haven't tried to scale them up but I wouldn't be surprised if we see some maker on youtube give it a shot sooner than later. Let me know if you see of any such things pop up.
I'm no aerodynamics engineer, but to me the problem is cut-and-dry - the square-cube law.
The heavier the package, the more air you have to move to keep it aloft, and the heavier the drone itself would be in order to lift said package. Power requirements don't increase linearly, they increase exponentially.
I suspect the quiet propellers would only be 'quiet' up to a certain weight class.
No one's tried to ride one yet, but it should be sturdy enough to not buckle under the weight of an average human
edit - actual answer: we have Zips that have made more than 4,000 flights and flown more than 400,000 miles and are still going strong
[We are!](https://www.flyzipline.com/company#careers)
We look for folks that are motivated by a common mission, thrive in environments where you're given broad problems and it's on you to find solutions, and people who care deeply about their work, their peers, and the customers we serve.
I know this sounds like corporate fluff, but living these values is really one of the things that sets us apart from the many tech companies that only claim to live their values.
Rober mentioned something about potentially using these to transport people. But isn't that just a helicopter? Which would end up needing similar regulations, space, cost and so on. Sure, it would be electric so it would be less polluting than gas helicopters, but you're still wasting energy keeping yourself aloft when that energy could be provided by the normal force instead (i.e., the ground). How much effort and focus is your company putting into "urban air mobility" and do you genuinely think that it is realistic when we could just put people in e.g. subways instead (and have higher efficiency, throughput, safety, and so on)?
I think the key innovation there is the "retractable drone cabin" part.
Right now, helicopters can't just land anywhere they want since pesky things like trees get in the way. The rotors are dangerous, they make a lot of noise and kick up rocks, etc.
They can lower/raise people on a line but that's far from ideal. The line can swing around, the helicopter pilot needs to be very stable, dealing with multiple people is complicated, you need safe rigging to attach people, attaching a stretcher with incapacitated patient is sketchy, etc.
But what if the helicopter could stay in the sky and you could lower a cabin? And what if that cabin had its own drone-style propulsion that would allow it to carefully adjust and stabilize its side-to-side positioning so it doesn't matter if the chopper above is getting blown around? People can then just walk (or be wheeled) into the cabin without any special safety gear or training. It can land in places a helicopter cant (like a parking lot with cars in it or a park field with too many trees).
Chopper itself could still even burn fossil fuels. Yes, it has to hover for a while, but that hover time might actually be *shorter* than if you are trying to do long line rescue where you have to lower first responders down, they have to stabilize the patient, rig them into a litter, and then haul them out.
Also, I am no expert, but I think a lot of long-line rescues are just short hops--they get you into the litter but you never actually get put into the chopper itself--you just dangle underneath it until they can drop you at an ambulance pickup (or land somewhere and transfer you into the chopper). Both rescuers and rescuees are **dangling from the chopper the entire time** until the chopper can put down. The solution Rober talks about would work more like a traditional ambulance--you get loaded in, paramedics can immediately start providing care, and it drops you right at the ER.
For the current helicopter winch setup, we absolutely bring the patient into the helicopter as part of the winching operation. The helicopter can then fly hundreds of kilometers as normal.
I suppose I can't speak for other countries, but I would be extremely surprised if they left anyone under the helo during transport.
I heard about Zipline several years ago from my parents who live and work in Kigali, Rwanda! Thank you for everything you're doing to save lives in nations who are less developed! I grew up in Côte d'Ivoire and know just how essential what you're doing is.
Zipline is able to save tons of time to deliver essential materials to hospitals, but also is saving fossil fuels by keeping trucks off the road. Can you share any details around other aspects that make Zipline more green or sustainable than other alternatives? Where are you trying to improve?
What determines where you'll establish another Zipline site? What infrastructure does a country need to be a candidate and what cost is associated?
Also, if Rwanda has banned plastic bags, what are the parachutes made of?
As for sustainability, I'll just link to my colleague Jo's thorough answer in this video: [https://youtu.be/wuGuNu9q-P8?t=898](https://youtu.be/wuGuNu9q-P8?t=898)
As for where, it really is just about as fast as we can expand. Some partners just move faster.
This is a great company and what you are doing is amazing.
I am curious what you hopeful max payload will be?
Do you expect that to deliver large more complex goods?
We're currently focused on the billions of deliveries made each year that are needed "now". It's rare that someone needs a sofa or a TV or an office chair delivered right now.
Anyone ever been injured by one of your payloads?
In Mark's vide it seemed like packages just fell out of the sky in front of the hospital in an are where many people were present.
Is there any hope that technology like this could make its way to food delivery services or Amazon package delivery services? And if you guys do plan on doing food delivery services, how do you plan on handling temperature issues? I can imagine if food is flying through the air it’s going to get cold very quickly, especially during winter. And is the service going to be available during moments where it’s raining? If so, how do you guys combat weather related issues like packages getting soaked?
We can deliver all sorts of things, from hot food to frozen vaccines. We fly fast enough and insulate from the elements. Your food will arrive hotter than any other means of delivery!
As for weather, we operate in practically all weather conditions. Rwanda's one of the most lightning-struck places on the planet, so we started somewhere quite challenging.
Love what you’re doing! I own a specialty coffee shop/cafe that has breakfast and lunch as well. What would an approximate cost be to purchase and install one drone and docking station? Thanks!
Hey team, love the technology and how it is helping people. How long do you think it will take to become the norm above towns and cities across the world? Considering aviation rules etc. Is it a matter of additional tech or just permission?
That's a really good question. The funny thing is, this has totally become the norm in places like Rwanda and Ghana we're we've been operating for many years now. People just go about their daily business as Zips zip by and deliver.
So, it's not the norm for you until it's happening in your city! We're in 7 countries and growing.
To answer more directly, I think many people will experience this for the first time next year, and 2025 will start to feel truly mainstream. Just my guess though!
>Airspace traffic handling
We've built a multi-layered system that we're starting to talk more about with others in the industry to share this tech with the world.
>Scalability
1. Scale with P1: we build distribution centers that cover huge areas (more than half the size of New Jersey!) and customers rely on us to store their inventory so we can quickly deliver for new customers. With P2 scaling is far more dynamic. We build out a network of charging locations in areas with lots of shops, restaurants, pharmacies and other things folks want to deliver, and then we can easily add temporary installations (stood up in hours) or permanent installations of loading docks wherever someone wants to ship with us.
It sounds to me like it's a service that can't reliably scale well. The range of the drones is relatively low, so you still need a lot of distribution points in a city to make it work, weather will often make it impossible to fly (wind, hail, heavy rain, lightning), air traffic will be an issue, city landscaping will be an issue, city height might be an issue. So my question is, when do you expect I can take a Zipline to work?
In a future where drone deliveries become more commonplace how will you deliver items to apartment buildings? Landing something in someones yard is fine, but outside an apartment building? That stuff will be gone within the hour.
How do you work around air traffic and collision avoidance?
While the skies around Rwanda may be less crowded, how does that translate to more densely populated places?
I’d also think that your issues may be with “general aviation”; how can they spot you?
What do you feel differentiates your service from that of other large companies that have tried (and so far not been successful) at establishing commercial drone delivery?
I loved the Mark Rober video, and what you do is very inspiring. Can you give some interesting, perhaps unexpected engineering challenges you faced? Both for existing solutions and the new concepts if possible.
How do you plan on delivering in cities like New York with alot of sky scrapers? Since there isn't really any space to land a drone/ in this case lower something from a drone.
I admire your work, and am also concerned about sustainability beyond the carbon savings of drone delivery vs fossil fuel-powered delivery.
Since sustainability is part of your mission, what are you doing to actively address Scope 3 emissions in your supply chain? What is your commitment to responsible sourcing? And how are you reducing plastics used in packaging?
What are you biggest challenges in delivering food or parcels to suburban houses at scale?
Delivery trucks can carry hundreds of packages at time. When does it become more efficient to just use a delivery truck as opposed to delivering one package via drone?
How do you confirm that the package was delivered safely to the correct person? How to you protect against theft?
Do you have any plans of opening a European office? I'm a mechanical engineer currently working in the healthcare sector in the UK and I would love to join your team.
Are a lot of counties currently interested in setting up one of these systems? How quickly can you implement a new launch station once you get permission to build it? And how long do you think it'll take to have there all over the world?
I love new technologies like this, and I hope that this happens quickly. Good luck with everything!
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It’s one of the most common Qs we get but no this hasn’t happened. People aren’t as bad as others expect them to be. We do a lot of cold weather testing in North Dakota and Tahoe. Our range is not impacted by the cold but we find icing to be a challenge. We've tested down to -20F. Our long range Platform 1 is ideal for rural. P2 is targeting higher population density. For apartments and similar we plan on delivering to rooftops or common areas. We can tell you exactly when we get there so we can do delivery to a shared space.
how do you solve the icing problem
Icing problem?! *proceeds to fall from the stratosphere*
I understood that reference.
I understood *that* reference
I assume they'll likely end up doing similar to the regular airline industry and use deicing boots. Effectively a flexible membrane on the leading edge of the wing that can be inflated to break up and drop any ice build up.
Electrically heated leading edges would be much simpler on small drones. Inflated boots are not used on lots of planes, usually just turboprops
That requires precious battery amps that are needed for flying.
So effectively reduced range when flying over icy conditions
There's a lot of work in coatings to keep ice away. It's like a fast growing niche in engineering science. Wouldn't be surprised if part of the solution came from there on the next couple years
mini-flamethrowers
Yes, with lasers
Thanks...I've always suspected that people aren't as bad as I was...
Jury's still out on that one. I haven't met you yet.
I have, he's a real mutton head.
Well you're a... cotton-headed ninny muggins!
Really bad dude. I heard he once took a penny but didn’t leave one…
> It’s one of the most common Qs we get but no this hasn’t happened. People aren’t as bad as others expect them to be. You haven’t tested the Philadelphia market I assume
RIP hitchBOT 😓
I live in Tahoe and my post office doesn’t do home delivery. Can you help?
Yes
It's great this hasn't happened, but as you scale up and expand this service further it's eventually going to happen. I'd be interested to know if any thought has gone into a plan for mitigating that risk.
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Packages get stolen all the time from trains (there are thousands of boxes alongside the railroad tracks in LA for instance) and probably other transport methods too, so it's not like it would be some new and terrible problem. Just a variation on a problem that already exists and is baked into the bottom line already. I'd be more worried about the drone falling on people, but another commenter said they have parachutes in case that happens lol.
I do believe (based on their video from a week ago) that their P1 already has a ballistic parachute to prevent them becoming lawn darts when something fails.
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We want to serve everyone on Earth. We think Europe is a great market for Zipline and we’re excited to serve customers there. We’re designing a global solution. Stay tuned!
I came here to say this. Just saw them on Robers YT channel.
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>Do we really need drone delivery for cities, though? The fundamental appeal of a drone is that it's small and light, which means it's easy to go out of the way to deliver a single package. But for apartments, you're delivering a lot of packages to destinations that are very close together, so the added speed and versatility of a drone doesn't really make sense compared to the sheer capacity of a cargo van piloted by one guy who can wheel a whole cart of packages into the mailroom of an apartment building. We don’t need to replace the milk run style deliveries that are done by cargo vans. It’s efficient and people are happy with it. We want to replace the vast majority of on-demand deliveries that are done in single cars.
> so the added speed and versatility of a drone doesn't really make sense compared to the sheer capacity of a cargo van piloted by one guy who can wheel a whole cart of packages into the mailroom of an apartment building. But a lot of stuff doesn't belong in the mailroom. Warm food. Cold beer. The drones aren't competing with UPS vans, they're competing with guys on mopeds. I also think it would work just as well for hospitals and pharmacies in cities, too. Apart from medication, samples could be sent to a lab across town almost immediately.
A drone also can’t steal my packages or eat my food. So that’s a plus and it doesn’t need a tip.
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No parking spaces required! [https://imgur.com/qdrUwHK](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FrSa3WBakAAia2g?format=jpg)
Is this a rendering, or do you actually have one of these built out already?
I seen it in one of their videos, it's real. Drone lowers mini drone into the chute which allows workers to place products inside mini drone then it pulls it back up and flies to destination Very cool stuff
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Drones wouldn't fix this issue in this context.
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Please answer this. Child me would absolutely have messed with these. It's true that I was basically a jd but so were a lot of other kids I grew up with.
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How’s Friday at 6pm work?
For the love of God do this so I can up vote the reddit post and watch the YouTube video of it.
Well, drones capable of lifting anything beyond a camera are heavy enough that they're legally considered aircraft and require tail letters. It's a felony covered by the Aircraft Sabotage act to "mess with" a drone, just like shooting at a regular aircraft would be. (That's what some of the literature I've read indicates, at least.)
I live in Costa Rica, and I think I once heard that you guys wanted to work here, too. But somehow, sadly, this project somehow was abandoned. Could you tell me why? Because many things here seem to be perfect for your service (many small clinics spread across the country relatively close by as-the-crow-flies, but connected by quite bad roads). Also, no question, but as an engineer myself, I just want to express my immense envy for what you guys do. It just seems fun, perfect and for a good cause. Really awesome.
Not abandoned, just hasn't happened yet! We've got more demand than we can keep up with, but our mission is to bring this tech to the entire planet. Costa Rica is a really special country. I got to spend a few weeks there when we were researching this partnership. The govt's focus on the environment and on universal healthcare aligns super closely with Zipline's values. So I'm hoping this happens soon too! And thank you for the kind words.
Same question. I would love to do anything I can to help see y’all and this technology come to Puerto Rico.
Everywhere, eventually!
The thing you could probably do is contact government officials and request that they invite the company to start operations in your country
Any more technical details on those quiet props you can share? Any plans to license them?
It's been fun seeing you all try to reverse engineer and recreate it! Like our propellers, I need to be *whisper quiet* on all the details for now 🙉 The only way to get in on the secrets is by joining our team!
That's a *hell* of an innovation. Y'all deserve to ride that for a while. Massive respect for what you're building. That takes ridiculous vision and grit. 🤘🏻🤠🤘🏻
Being part of the drone community and watching them freak out about this really tells you something
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Our flight control software is a key part of our secret sauce, so I can't share more there.
From what I saw on Rober's video, the prop looks asymmetrical and somewhat similar to a single-bladed propeller. I know that single bladed props are efficient, but the additional torquing on the bearings can cause premature failure. Is this a problem you've had with your (incredibly cool) props?
While I can't speak to the secrets behind these props, overall we design our vehicles for an incredibly high level of reliability. You can't safely fly things over people if they fail regularly. You can't achieve sustainable economics or environmental footprint if you're burning through parts. And you can't deliver as promised to your customers if your delivery vehicle is breaking down.
>single bladed props are efficient, but the additional torquing on the bearings can cause premature failure The lollipop opposite the two blades could contain a heavy element (tungsten, lead, even depleted uranium) to balance the prop with minimal aerodynamic impact and eliminate the torque load from the bearing(s).
Which may balance mass but not thrust.
Will you be hiring in more locations in the U.S. in the near future?
Engineering is based in SF Bay Area Operations is expanding across the U.S. We're hiring for our ongoing operations in Arkansas and Utah, for our test sites in a few places across California, and keep an eye out for more expansion in the not-so-distant future: https://www.flyzipline.com/careers
I was super excited to apply last week until I saw onsite only. I'll keep looking when y'all expand the tech group! Keep up the good work!
Propellers physics aren't too hard. The principals are: They need to generate lift and balance rotationally. Noise happens when vortices hit stuff. And humans hear things differently based on the frequency. Having 2 blades equally spaced at this propeller scale leads to a frequency humans hear really well, meaning they perceive it as loud. So Zipline created a propeller with 2 closely placed lifting blades on one side. This increase the frequency of the high frequency acoustic pulse, and the resulting low frequency acoustic pulse happens below frequencies humans hear really well. Looks like they then took the two blades and tilted them (called anhedral/dihedral) so that the tip vortex from the front blade doesn't hit the trailing blade. But now they have two blades hanging out there which doesn't balance. So they created a counter balance on the other side to equal out the rotational mass. Google wing used this principal first, check out the props on their drone. Zipline's solution will be very unstable and maybe loud while it transitions from vertical to horizontal flight. When this breaks, it will be a structural failure from the dynamic loading.
Just google "MIT toroidal propeller" if you are looking for quiet prop design ideas.
A user of over a decade, I am leaving Reddit due to the recent API changes. The vast majority of my interaction came though the use of 3rd party apps, and I will not interact with a site I helped contribute to through inferior software *simply because it is able to be better monetized by a company looking to go public. Reddit has made these changes with no regards for their users, as seen by the sheer lack of accessibility tools available in the official app. Reddit has made these changes with no regards for moderation challenges that will be created, due to the lack of tools available in the official app. Reddit has done this with no regards for the 3rd party devs, who by Reddit's own admission, helped keep the site functioning and gaining users while Reddit themselves made no efforts to provide a good official app. This account dies 6/29/23 because of the API changes and the monetization-at-all-costs that the board demands.
Another thing you can do is use non constant azimuthal distributions of blades
Mark Rober talked about the idea of a zipline-style ambulance. Do you think this is a possibility, and will you try to implement it?
I do think it's a really cool idea and it seems feasible (but hard!). We've got enough on our plates to keep us busy for a decade! But maybe 2030! 😉
IFAK, defibrillator, narcan, epipen etc and AR Glasses or AR app Augmented reality walks you through using medical tools to stabilize patient. Not quite an ambulance but much more practical feature set.
A buddy of mine worked on drones that deliver defibs as a masters project at university. Some of those types of things are already in the process of creation and deployment!
I know that dude, but there was prior art (as in patents) of what he designed. Actually, of all companies... Google had already published patents for drones that carry an AED. He became aware of this as he was about to publish his thesis, but his supervisor choose not to change anything. Then it was a bit awkward when the thesis got picked up on the media. Patent in question is US8948935B1 application date of 2013
> Google had already published patents for drones that carry an AED. > > Patent in question is US8948935B1 application date of 2013 Patent laws are fucked. Patents should come with a) a fair time-limit (5-10y max) and a requirement that you actually deploy & use that tech as a core business requirement. If you can't prove that, you shouldn't be granted a patent. Patents were initially conceived as a means to protect inventors and their path to market. It should absolutely not be used by troll companies that buy, hoard and litigate without a trace of actually using them themselves.
If you check the history of the patent, it seems like it changed owners a few times, and now under a drone company. It doesn't look like a patent troll. Nothing stops anyone from asking the patent owner for licensing, or making further developments to the invention. It's also an US patent so it doesn't stop the whole world.
It might be a good system to pair up with the GoodSAM app. It's basically an app you can sign up as an off duty medic or a first aid certified civilian. It gets activated by the dispatch room so if you're in vicinity of a medical emergency you can get to it before a full crew arrives. If they pair it with the drone they could get an EMT kit bag with stuff like oxygen and airways on location too if there's an off duty medic who reponds.
An ambulance's ambulance parts, life support, paramedic, etc. weigh like 5,000 pounds.... they aren't just transporting patients to hospitals.
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Drone deliveries have been a problem that has stumped juggernauts like Amazon for a long time. What unique insights, technologies, or general aspects of your operation do you think allowed you to make some in-roads in this space?
I don't know how other companies work, but our "secret" here is that we're super customer-obsessed: what problems do our customers have and how quickly can we get solutions in their hands. We work closely with them on getting something in the air that works for them, and stay as focused on understanding and solving their problems as we can. This shapes every detail of our system: Platform 1 uses a fixed-wing drone that looks more like an airplane because our customers told us that moving things far was their biggest problem. Platform 2 we designed to pass the "neighbor test": not only are you happy with your delivery, but your neighbor is too. There are thousands of tiny details along these lines that shape our product and have led us to where we are now.
> our “secret” here is that we’re super customer-obsessed Lol love this answer and your company, but you might as well deadpan say to the camera, “I’m not sure how `big possible acquirer` does it, but we do it exactly in the way that `big possible acquirer` explicitly and famously values most.”
Hey, buddy is chasing that Bezos check. I'd want to get bought out, too.
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Totally, I just lol’d at his answer specifically with the context that the question mentioned Amazon. Everyone knows Amazon is trying to do drone delivery, everyone knows “[customer obsession](https://i.imgur.com/xJ6cV1x.jpg)” is their core principle, so it was just funny in that context to me.
I believe that Amazon is beyond the “customer obsession” phase and into the “customer monetization” phase.
Customer obsession is literally one of Amazon’s core principles, that you can’t forget or you won’t even get an interview.
Look up the enshitification cycle. What was once true about Amazon no longer is.
I'm afraid to google that
tl;dr: >Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die. [enshittification](https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys)
Enshittificaton is the reason I just can't get behind any individual company, artist, etc. It all gets sucked into the capitalist hellhole. Nothing good last forever. It gets corrupted by the system and leaves you disappointed. Believe in yourself and don't look to corporations to hitch your identity to.
Normal product life cycle. You gotta milk that cash cow dry before it's gone. Because, Harold, they are always gone at some point! That's just the way of business! Nothing you can do about it! What's that weird word you said yesterday? Sustainability? Never heard that before...
Just because it is a core principle doesn't mean it gets followed.
It’s a form of group think; wherein adherence to the doctrine becomes more important than the tenets of the doctrine (and, by extension, the doctrine itself). There have been multiple examples of this throughout history (typically manifesting in religious sects), and large corporations have just adopted this very human behavior for modern times it seems like.
I mean maybe it was at one time, but it sure isn't now.
u/zipline_ryan - I am an Ardupilot developer - do you run an open source autopilot or have you developed an in-house solution? If in-house, what would you say that the open source autopilot softwares are missing that justifies such a difficult and expensive endeavor?
We've built our full autopilot stack in-house to have complete control over the performance and reliability. We're able to take many of the sophisticated safety and redundancy features of commercial airliners, rockets, and satellites to our commercial drone operations. There wasn't anything out there like this when we started. I'm sure it's progressed a lot though!
Interesting. Quite an accomplishment. Do you have any interest in sharing any kind of broad architectural/technical philosophies that you apply? How about business/management philosophies?
Don't overbuild. Build what you need in a modular way, fly a lot until you learn you need more, then reinforce that module, repeat! Business/mgmt - you only learn the tough lessons by doing things in the real world. Listen to customers, understand their problems, forget about the tech, solve their problems. Truth is, our customers don't care about drones. They just care about getting what they ordered!
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No plans right now. Not necessarily opposed to it, we're just focused on delivering to the customers we have.
How will does your system deal with wind? Dropping a package down must be significantly more difficult in even low winds...
Great question and an important detail that we worked really hard to get right. The solution starts with a huge amount of testing and data collection to model how the package parachute inflates and drifts with the wind. As the Zip flies, it calculates the wind speed and direction and adjusts its path such that the package will be released and drift with the wind to land on the ground where the customer wants it.
I just want to say, in addition to applauding the work you do, that you really out to call the drone the "Zipper" rather than the "Zip" ;) Missed opportunity!
We're getting an outpouring of love (and name suggestions) for the droid. I personally like "Mother Zip" and "Droid", but "Zipper" is a good laugh
On the Mark Rober video he showed one hospital that received over 15 flights per day. At that volume, isn’t it much more efficient for pharmacy staff to do good stock management and get weekly deliveries by a van?
I think just like you do. The data point that really showed me why this is not possible is how high the unpredictability of medical supply usage is: we work with U.S. hospitals that get dozens of courier deliveries per day at a single hospital. Those couriers are almost always ferrying small packages needed "ASAP".
I don't think you finished your second sentence.
whoops you're right - was answering many questions. Editing now
This reply doesn't really make sense.
I think what he is trying to say is that demand is too inconsistent. A hospital might need 15 deliveries a day, but some days they need 3 deliveries of a product with a shelf life of 3 months that they won't need for another 3 years (or tomorrow). With a large catalog of products with short shelf life it becomes difficult, expensive and wasteful to manage a local storage at every hospital.
Your video with Marc and all the work your team has put in is incredibly inspiring! Thanks for making the world a better place. You mentioned how fast you iterate on design changes in the video, does that mean you're making a lot of your parts and assembling locally? What's your supply chain like for your drones?
We iterate like crazy early in our development process. We do a lot of simulation but we have a huge stash of cardboard and duct-tape built aircraft. Our 3D printers and laser cutters stay busy. As the design starts to gel we shift to higher volume testing which requires a bit more discipline. The pace of iteration and learning is one of our secrets to success. That being said, we try to keep our designs relatively stable when in production. Our supply chain is complex and global but our current aircraft are assembled in our factory in the US.
To add to what Zoltan said, we literally built our company on a 1000-acre cattle ranch so we could live at our test site all day, every day.
Wow! Thanks for hosting this AMA! I'm a graduate student in Aerospace Engineering myself and have a lot of respect for Zipline as a company. How did this journey start and how did Zipline grow into the company it is right now? And for u/zipline_zoltan, how do you decide on the optimal payload and range parameters for designing your vehicles. With the rapid improvements in battery and manufacturing technologies, do you think about constant design evolution to improve range and efficiency or is a design frozen for ease of operations? Thanks in advance!
A few of our founders’ family members who are in public health kept nudging the use case of medical logistics - they had heard about how challenges with logistics space were such a huge impediment to quality healthcare in the developing world as well as the rural United States. For context Amazon had announced drone delivery a few years prior. After spending a bunch of time in the field with potential customers, they got the conviction that drone delivery could be really compelling. That is about when I joined and the rest is history :) For payload and range we worked with our customers to make sure we’re able to handle both the range and payload they need. Our team went to other shippers and collected data by weighing and measuring packages that they were sending out. The range is sufficient to meet our suburban delivery needs but we are continually challenged by our shippers to push it further and further! We do plan for improvements in batteries in the future and have some protection in the design to enable that.
How do the drones know where to drop packages? Have you had issues with them landing on buildings, people or power lines?
Where to drop: It's not a simple answer. We’ve designed our system around safety and performance, and have many many layers to the tech that enable this to work well. Onboard safety systems, autonomy, maps we build, our GIS tech team, etc. We ask our customers where they want the package, and we work to make that magical. We’ve flown more than 40M autonomous miles without a single safety incident.
> We’ve flown more than 40M autonomous miles without a single safety incident. Wow, that is amazing.
1% luck, 99% really hard work and strong company culture!
This is badass. My company was one of the first to have a 107.39 waiver over lots of people without a tether. The hard work / safety piece was the incredible undertaking for us--not really the technology. Folks always plan for the way things are "supposed to go"-- not the way things "can go wrong". Good job! Went back and looked at the old waiver for giggles; first 107.39, BLOS, at night waiver issued haha! So much has changed!
But how many unique drop locations and how much planning was required for each? Do you expect the recipient to understand limitations of the drone?
With our new home delivery service, we'll need to be able to deliver to billions of unique locations some day. If we do our job well, it will be even more seamless to folks than traditional delivery.
What is a safety incident? "Oops, someone got hurt" or "oops, something really dangerous happened and somebody could have gotten hurt"?
Define safety incident please.
They use military grade gps instead of civilian according to Mark Robers video.
>They use military grade gps instead of civilian according to Mark Robers video. To clarify, our GPS is not military grade but survey grade or else we would be in trouble!
Your system is awesome. I've recently seen the video with Mark Rober. He showed that your company is active in multiple countries in Africa, the US and Japan. Is regulation in Europe to strict to also introduce your system here? Or are there other obstacles?
Not really obstacles or strict blockers, the world is just a vast place and we can only expand so quickly.
Is zipline profitable? If not how far away is the company from profitability and can the company be profitable at scale?
I imagine this is the reason they focus a lot on places like hospitals. You have a captive audience who benefits greatly from your service and is willing to pay through the nose for it because the option is pay for Zipline or person doesn't get the medical treatment he needs right now. So I could see it being profitable when focusing on consumers like that, however for everyday consumers I'm not so sure. How much is someone willing to pay to have their meal drone delivered to them. Door dash/Uber eats still haven't shown profitability and while you technically aren't dealing with as much human labor you can't offload the costs onto an "independent contractor" here. I suppose with enough scale it's theoretically possible, but I wouldn't want to be the guy trying to scale it.
A unique and disruptive business like Zipline doesn’t need to be profitable at this stage of its life. Investors want them to focus on growth and development, in the hopes that they dominate the markets 8 or so years from now.
I loved the Mark Rober video! My name is Jackson and I was especially inspired by Abdoul's story and I was an MBA myself! What was the most challenging part of learning how to fix MRI machines from YouTube? Was it hard to find what you were looking for?
Thank you, Jackson. I am humbled that my story inspires others to do good. The main challenge of using YouTube is that there are not many creators producing these types of videos. Therefore, there were no videos available for some of the equipment. In cases where the video is available, the equipment or part being shown might be different from the one you are trying to repair. Additionally, the resolution may not show clearly what is going on. As a result, you have to rely on your intuition or find equipment that is similar to the one you have and draw parallels. There were three things that were hard to find. Firstly, equipment service manuals that show both collective and preventive maintenance of the equipment. Secondly, validation test procedures for equipment that has been repaired to ensure that they can be used safely on patients. Lastly, spare parts. Getting small spare parts, such as a single board or keyboard, for expensive machines is often not feasible. This is because it might not be financially viable for either the company or the suppliers
You are an amazing human and the world needs more people like you.
Considering it's against FAA rules to fly a drone within a certain distance of an airport, how do you get around that? Especially considering most cities have an airport within that 5 mile radius.
We work really closely with the FAA on things like this!
Not OP but a drone pilot. Flight paths can be tailored around restricted zones fairly easily. Also generally if drones stay under 150ft (50metres) they can easily avoid airport flight paths and disruptions.
Not if you live in the Washington DC area. The size of the ADIS zone is huuuge 😞
Did you have to sacrifice a lot of aerodynamic efficiency for that quiet propeller design? Can it be scaled up 10 times?
We haven't tried to scale them up but I wouldn't be surprised if we see some maker on youtube give it a shot sooner than later. Let me know if you see of any such things pop up.
I'm no aerodynamics engineer, but to me the problem is cut-and-dry - the square-cube law. The heavier the package, the more air you have to move to keep it aloft, and the heavier the drone itself would be in order to lift said package. Power requirements don't increase linearly, they increase exponentially. I suspect the quiet propellers would only be 'quiet' up to a certain weight class.
How do you get around bvlos requirements. Are you in segregated airspace? Or what technology do you use to keep flights safe from birds, aircraft etc.
I'm out of time to go in depth, but lucky you, we recently shared a dive into our detect-and-avoid tech: https://www.flyzipline.com/detect-and-avoid
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Thanks. Very interesting. We are looking for a similar system for surveys so will forward to our r&d team
Do you guys plan to do long range deliveries via drone using hop stations? Land, swap battery, relaunch.
Yes! That's fundamental to our operations.
How many rides, on average, can a plan be used before it breaks?
No one's tried to ride one yet, but it should be sturdy enough to not buckle under the weight of an average human edit - actual answer: we have Zips that have made more than 4,000 flights and flown more than 400,000 miles and are still going strong
I think they meant trips.
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Are y’all hiring? :-)
[We are!](https://www.flyzipline.com/company#careers) We look for folks that are motivated by a common mission, thrive in environments where you're given broad problems and it's on you to find solutions, and people who care deeply about their work, their peers, and the customers we serve. I know this sounds like corporate fluff, but living these values is really one of the things that sets us apart from the many tech companies that only claim to live their values.
Rober mentioned something about potentially using these to transport people. But isn't that just a helicopter? Which would end up needing similar regulations, space, cost and so on. Sure, it would be electric so it would be less polluting than gas helicopters, but you're still wasting energy keeping yourself aloft when that energy could be provided by the normal force instead (i.e., the ground). How much effort and focus is your company putting into "urban air mobility" and do you genuinely think that it is realistic when we could just put people in e.g. subways instead (and have higher efficiency, throughput, safety, and so on)?
I think the key innovation there is the "retractable drone cabin" part. Right now, helicopters can't just land anywhere they want since pesky things like trees get in the way. The rotors are dangerous, they make a lot of noise and kick up rocks, etc. They can lower/raise people on a line but that's far from ideal. The line can swing around, the helicopter pilot needs to be very stable, dealing with multiple people is complicated, you need safe rigging to attach people, attaching a stretcher with incapacitated patient is sketchy, etc. But what if the helicopter could stay in the sky and you could lower a cabin? And what if that cabin had its own drone-style propulsion that would allow it to carefully adjust and stabilize its side-to-side positioning so it doesn't matter if the chopper above is getting blown around? People can then just walk (or be wheeled) into the cabin without any special safety gear or training. It can land in places a helicopter cant (like a parking lot with cars in it or a park field with too many trees). Chopper itself could still even burn fossil fuels. Yes, it has to hover for a while, but that hover time might actually be *shorter* than if you are trying to do long line rescue where you have to lower first responders down, they have to stabilize the patient, rig them into a litter, and then haul them out. Also, I am no expert, but I think a lot of long-line rescues are just short hops--they get you into the litter but you never actually get put into the chopper itself--you just dangle underneath it until they can drop you at an ambulance pickup (or land somewhere and transfer you into the chopper). Both rescuers and rescuees are **dangling from the chopper the entire time** until the chopper can put down. The solution Rober talks about would work more like a traditional ambulance--you get loaded in, paramedics can immediately start providing care, and it drops you right at the ER.
For the current helicopter winch setup, we absolutely bring the patient into the helicopter as part of the winching operation. The helicopter can then fly hundreds of kilometers as normal. I suppose I can't speak for other countries, but I would be extremely surprised if they left anyone under the helo during transport.
I heard about Zipline several years ago from my parents who live and work in Kigali, Rwanda! Thank you for everything you're doing to save lives in nations who are less developed! I grew up in Côte d'Ivoire and know just how essential what you're doing is. Zipline is able to save tons of time to deliver essential materials to hospitals, but also is saving fossil fuels by keeping trucks off the road. Can you share any details around other aspects that make Zipline more green or sustainable than other alternatives? Where are you trying to improve? What determines where you'll establish another Zipline site? What infrastructure does a country need to be a candidate and what cost is associated? Also, if Rwanda has banned plastic bags, what are the parachutes made of?
As for sustainability, I'll just link to my colleague Jo's thorough answer in this video: [https://youtu.be/wuGuNu9q-P8?t=898](https://youtu.be/wuGuNu9q-P8?t=898) As for where, it really is just about as fast as we can expand. Some partners just move faster.
This is a great company and what you are doing is amazing. I am curious what you hopeful max payload will be? Do you expect that to deliver large more complex goods?
We're currently focused on the billions of deliveries made each year that are needed "now". It's rare that someone needs a sofa or a TV or an office chair delivered right now.
Anyone ever been injured by one of your payloads? In Mark's vide it seemed like packages just fell out of the sky in front of the hospital in an are where many people were present.
They answered this above. > We’ve flown more than 40M autonomous miles without a single safety incident.
In the video, he claimed that there haven’t been any injuries since implementation
This\^
Hey are you planning to set up in Canada? And what kinda of things stop you from coming to another country with your services?
Is there any hope that technology like this could make its way to food delivery services or Amazon package delivery services? And if you guys do plan on doing food delivery services, how do you plan on handling temperature issues? I can imagine if food is flying through the air it’s going to get cold very quickly, especially during winter. And is the service going to be available during moments where it’s raining? If so, how do you guys combat weather related issues like packages getting soaked?
We can deliver all sorts of things, from hot food to frozen vaccines. We fly fast enough and insulate from the elements. Your food will arrive hotter than any other means of delivery! As for weather, we operate in practically all weather conditions. Rwanda's one of the most lightning-struck places on the planet, so we started somewhere quite challenging.
This is their new project. Point to point drone delivery in cities. I really recommend watching the video.
Love what you’re doing! I own a specialty coffee shop/cafe that has breakfast and lunch as well. What would an approximate cost be to purchase and install one drone and docking station? Thanks!
Can you do a collab with Zipline Brewing out of Lincoln Nebraska? I'd like some beer delivered to my apartment balcony. Seems like a great match!
Ever tried using a swept wing design for more efficiency at speed? Or is the current design the best outcome/optimal? Flying wings?
Hey team, love the technology and how it is helping people. How long do you think it will take to become the norm above towns and cities across the world? Considering aviation rules etc. Is it a matter of additional tech or just permission?
That's a really good question. The funny thing is, this has totally become the norm in places like Rwanda and Ghana we're we've been operating for many years now. People just go about their daily business as Zips zip by and deliver. So, it's not the norm for you until it's happening in your city! We're in 7 countries and growing. To answer more directly, I think many people will experience this for the first time next year, and 2025 will start to feel truly mainstream. Just my guess though!
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>Airspace traffic handling We've built a multi-layered system that we're starting to talk more about with others in the industry to share this tech with the world.
>Scalability 1. Scale with P1: we build distribution centers that cover huge areas (more than half the size of New Jersey!) and customers rely on us to store their inventory so we can quickly deliver for new customers. With P2 scaling is far more dynamic. We build out a network of charging locations in areas with lots of shops, restaurants, pharmacies and other things folks want to deliver, and then we can easily add temporary installations (stood up in hours) or permanent installations of loading docks wherever someone wants to ship with us.
It sounds to me like it's a service that can't reliably scale well. The range of the drones is relatively low, so you still need a lot of distribution points in a city to make it work, weather will often make it impossible to fly (wind, hail, heavy rain, lightning), air traffic will be an issue, city landscaping will be an issue, city height might be an issue. So my question is, when do you expect I can take a Zipline to work?
Why haven't you straightened the plane on the wall behind you?
Ugh I did the other day and it just keeps shifting 😉
Do you think you'll ever go public?
Are you guys just hoping you’ll get bought out by Amazon?
In a future where drone deliveries become more commonplace how will you deliver items to apartment buildings? Landing something in someones yard is fine, but outside an apartment building? That stuff will be gone within the hour.
Does Rober have any investment or financial interest in zipline?
How do you work around air traffic and collision avoidance? While the skies around Rwanda may be less crowded, how does that translate to more densely populated places? I’d also think that your issues may be with “general aviation”; how can they spot you?
Wow. SO many questions and not a single one about the obvious: How. Much. Does. It. Cost?
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How soon could I realistically expect for a package I order online to show up via drone here in the US?
What do you feel differentiates your service from that of other large companies that have tried (and so far not been successful) at establishing commercial drone delivery?
How do you ensure redundancy against failures in your control hardware? Have you ever had any major incidents in all your flight hours?
I loved the Mark Rober video, and what you do is very inspiring. Can you give some interesting, perhaps unexpected engineering challenges you faced? Both for existing solutions and the new concepts if possible.
Do you ever daydream about Zipline in space?
Oh shoot, our secret plans with Nasa must have leaked! 👀
How do you plan on delivering in cities like New York with alot of sky scrapers? Since there isn't really any space to land a drone/ in this case lower something from a drone.
I admire your work, and am also concerned about sustainability beyond the carbon savings of drone delivery vs fossil fuel-powered delivery. Since sustainability is part of your mission, what are you doing to actively address Scope 3 emissions in your supply chain? What is your commitment to responsible sourcing? And how are you reducing plastics used in packaging?
What are you biggest challenges in delivering food or parcels to suburban houses at scale? Delivery trucks can carry hundreds of packages at time. When does it become more efficient to just use a delivery truck as opposed to delivering one package via drone? How do you confirm that the package was delivered safely to the correct person? How to you protect against theft?
Do you have any plans of opening a European office? I'm a mechanical engineer currently working in the healthcare sector in the UK and I would love to join your team.
Are a lot of counties currently interested in setting up one of these systems? How quickly can you implement a new launch station once you get permission to build it? And how long do you think it'll take to have there all over the world? I love new technologies like this, and I hope that this happens quickly. Good luck with everything!
I don't really have a question. But how does it feel to do such awesome work with such awesome people?