UK set to have automated drone superhighway

Is this (organ transport) really an unsolved issue that some kind of "drone highway" would solve? I doubt it.

People will just steal the drones, I'm sure there's huge demand for organs.

Organ transport might be a good application. That doesn't mean that we should allow drones for any other types of application without thinking it over very thoroughly.

And let's not forget to tax the damage they cause in terms of pollution. Keeping things in the air requires way more energy than moving them over land. And there are other negative externalities (noise and visual pollution), and also physical danger (these things might crash or collide).

Not vaporware, however, not ready for scaling up on to an industrial scale. The main concern remains safety in case of a malfunction. Until that has been addressed, the main benefit seems to be delivery of essentials (e.g. cancer medications) to remote areas where the drone can fly mostly over uninhabited areas.

Vapourware is when someone promises to meet a need with no intention of doing so. The fact there might be at least some need for this doesn't mean it isn't vapourware.

> There is a demand for fast transportation of medical supplies [emphasis mine]

Is there really?

I understand that for non-fungible, perishable goods such as organs or test samples there might be a need (though a helicopter would do just as well), but when it comes to supplies, it will be significantly cheaper to just make more of them and stock up on them at each hospital rather than moving them back & forth (not to mention that this particular trial only ranged for 40 miles - this is something a car can easily do).

It won't work unless it's cheaper than the alternatives, and I can't see it being cheaper than just optimizing logistics elsewhere to ensure you have a big enough stock of medical supplies to not need regular drone deliveries (and when you do, a helicopter is an adequate backup plan).

we already have motorcyclists for this - there are Blood Bike volunteers in most counties. They carry blood, organs, samples, supplies, etc much faster than even a car on blue lights. And it's cheap :)

In addition to my previous comments, if there's actual demand this means that the NHS is currently paying a higher fee per delivery which should allow a private competitor to step in, undercut the current system (whether via drone deliveries or otherwise) and make a profit. It doesn't have to be limited to the NHS even - there are plenty of other applications that would benefit from faster & more flexible logistics powered by drones. Yet it isn't happening, suggesting the current system is already in its optimal state.

A classic, classic move in the UK when you want to get govt money to do something of marginal or negative social value is to find some way of 'helping the NHS'.

Take a look at Greensill Capital. They were running a politically exposed shadow bank with terrible risk controls. They hired a former Prime Minister to sell a project which would 'lend NHS staff their salaries mid month'.

Drone delivery itself isn't vaporware, and will almost certainly happen. However, the title referring to "the biggest drone superhighway" is the kind of BS the current UK government likes to put out. I am surprised it isn't sold as some kind of direct benefit of Brexit. If you read the article, it is about a small amount of funding to scale up trial drone delivery. As the article implies a lot more research and investment is needed to scale up drone deliveries to an industrial scale, beyond isolated success stories.

It will be delivered right after the bridge to ireland, or the garden in the middle of the thames or the oven ready brexit deal we are all waiting for...

> In the UK we have NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard) and BANANAs (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anybody) who would besiege the local councils with objections and cause havoc for planners.

I immediately had to think of Minions and their characteristic of well intentions disrupting their boss's plans when reading BANANAs...

To get back to topic - here in Germany, we have introduced a special law, the "Maßnahmengesetz" [1], to bypass the usual permit processes and NIMBY/BANANA bullshit for twelve major infrastructure process. Basically, the law is explicitly saying that the projects in its scope are of major national/european importance, have been decided upon democratically and so do not need additional layers of checks and balances. Unfortunately, the EU Commission decided in all its glory that this idea of short-cutting the NIMBYs is a violation of EU law and so everything is under question again [2]

[1] https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/magvg/BJNR064000020.html

[2] https://www.eurailpress.de/nachrichten/politik/detail/news/i...

If they're too dangerous to fly over public roads all the time it's problematic to put them over people and houses on private property instead. (Leaving aside noise issues.) I imagine drones will have their place to do urgent deliveries especially where there aren't roads. But they suffer from the same problem that other heavier than air craft do (e.g. flying cars), their failure mode is falling out of sky on top of things--even with safety systems like parachutes.

The trouble with the NIMBY/BANANA labels is it basically amounts to saying "you care about something I don't care about". I know it's hard to believe, but other people do have different interests than you.

Likely the same as currently established means of delivery. Insurance.

Then the mail is in the sea.

The same thing that happens if a Loganair plane crashes into the sea.

Floating waterproof delivery drones should be fairly simple to design, so I assume they already exist?

Still a better delivery service than Hermes.

>But I don't think a few drones will change that.

I don't expect many people will begrudge the occasional urgent medical delivery. What a lot of people don't want is the sky full of buzzing hardware delivering takeout burgers.

I live in a small, boring town and regularly walk in the countryside. I think our definition of silence is different. Even in the north of the Peak District you'll get planes from Manchester airport. Everywhere else you'll hear loud cars/motorbikes from every direction. There are pockets of quiet, but it's very difficult to find true silence in Britain now. In any case, my point was really that these last few pockets are now at risk.

This is in the UK?

> majority of people believe their need to drive at 20% above any given limit

It’s almost endorsed legally afaik. We were even taught this “rule” at school

The insane speeding on tight country roads in the UK is absolutely bizarre. It’s in no way safe but everyone does it. My friends dad died on a motorcycle by riding around country roads too fast. It should really be a 30 limit, even 20 considering the visibility, but people drive at 60, even along single file roads that require you to reverse if you come across an oncoming car

People will selectively care a lot about animals. Just look at how may people become bird lovers when they want to stop a wind turbine.