Uber Eats to Test Flying Food to Customers by Drone in San Diego | Hacker News Reader

Uber Eats to Test Flying Food to Customers by Drone in San Diego

forbes.com

18 pointsnotinversed17 comments

Good choice, San Diegans are already used to low-flying aircraft buzzing between buildings.

The backlash from the public as soon as they hear how horrible / annoying these things sound may present a roadblock to rolling them out broadly.

Prediction: GPS jammers will become a huge thing and maybe even a sport. People are not going to like this at all. I fly drones. They are very noisy for just one, let alone hundreds/thousands. Combine this with Amazon delivering packages and stuff. Our skies are about to become a lot more crowded, noisy and distracting.

Compared with the carbon usage, road traffic and noise caused by car deliveries I think this might be a win.

Noise-wise, I'll take the sound of my Corolla over a drone any day. Not sure on raw relative decibel levels, but the whine is incredibly obnoxious.

They're illegal to sell and use in the US though.

So are cell phone jammers, but there's a decent trade in them.

If there is food flying around town unattended, how long until the crows, robins, owls, falcons, etc start going after it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5E6m252IbiY

Forget that, I'm starting a new sport for the gentry: it's called "Urban Duck Hunting," and the targets might include fowl, but it will already be deep-fried.

Serious question.

Why do people use Uber Eats? One of the benefits of living in an Urban area is the ability to walk places. I also get using Uber eats if you’re ordering in with family or friends.

That’s not what I see with Uber eats. I see people ordering one sub from Firehouse. Or a burger from McDonald’s. I’ve never felt so lazy I needed to tip someone and pay extra for McDonald’s or Chipotle and I can be lazy.

Same with grocery shopping. I’d never pay extra to have someone do it for me but it’s pretty popular in my area.

Well, I have, and I would.

> Why do people use Uber Eats?

I live in an area not very walkable, can't drive, and can't cook to save my life

I live in an area exactly as you describe. While stuff might be technically walkable, it still could be 20+ minute walk each way to the "close" places I want to go.

30 minutes of your life should be worth more than $3.

A lukewarm and soggy Firehouse sub is not worth 3 dollars.

In my case, it's because I'm busy at work, and the time I'd spend walking from the office to some restaurant is time that could be spent actually working.

That, and the places from which I order sometimes ain't even readily walkable in the first place unless my employer's okay with me taking a multiple-hour lunch break to walk from the office (near The Embarcadero) to, say, MAC'D (near Van Ness, so a 30+ minute walk each way even assuming I'm of at least average fitness, which I am very much not).

Re: grocery shopping, I've never done it (aside from a couple tries with Amazon Fresh), but I can understand and appreciate the time savings.

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