Amazing Invention- This Drone Will Change Everything

Mark Rober5 HN recommenders · 2023–2024
47.2M views · demo · dated · Uploaded 2023-03-18

Mark Rober visits Zipline and looks at its autonomous delivery drones, including medical and blood deliveries in Rwanda. He demonstrates how the drones' propeller design and cable-lowered delivery pod make them quiet and precise.

HN commenters cite it as the clearest look at Zipline's real-world drone operations, especially for medical delivery and the solved noise problem.

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17 comments from Hacker News

@programd2023 · in “High precision drone delivery using a zipline”

You can see more of Zipline drones in action in this video [0]. In particular the blood and medical supply delivery operation in Rowanda (at about 2:10) is very impressive. Not just a tech demo, this is modern drones in daily operation. [0] [VIDEO]

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@sgtnoodle2023 · in “Early Remote Work Impacts on Family Formation”

On a whim I scheduled a last minute video doctor appointment today to get some antibiotics to try and knock out this infection. The doctor asked if I was able to take time off work, and I told her that I had an incredibly supportive workplace, but stretches of time off weren't my issue. My lack of sleep is due to my inability to go more than 5 minutes without having a violent coughing fit, a sick 5 month old baby, a 4 year old daughter that likes to test limits, and an exhausted wife with a broken leg and vertigo. I don't think this is actually a good anecdote in support of your stereotype? Let me tell you more about my recent personal work experiences. After taking 3 months of paid paternity leave, I eased back in by working a few 10-20 hour weeks, then my wife broke her leg while we were out of town helping her mother who herself had broken her shoulder. The CTO of my company immediately called just to say not to worry at all about the company, and to focus 100% on taking care of my wife and daughters. I worked a few 5 hour weeks, mainly just asynchronously answering people's technical questions to keep the cogs of progress turning. There was a re-org while I was on paternity leave, and my new manager who was also a new hire was getting worried that maybe I should take some sort of formal leave. To be honest it sounded pretty good at the time, since I was stressed out to the point of having abdominal pain; 3 month old, post-partum wife bedridden in extreme agony, unable to

@zefalt2023 · in “Transit Study Reveals Robocars Causing Surprisingly Little Disruption on Streets”

[VIDEO] Saw saw this video the other day. Check out the drone around 13:55 regarding noise and rotor design. The whole video is worth a watch though. The company is zipline which is mentioned in a comment above.

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@Tade02023 · in “World’s largest battery maker announces major breakthrough in energy density”

> During the presentation, CATL said its working with partners on the development of electric passenger aircraft practicing aviation-level standards and testing in accordance with aviation-grade safety and quality requirements. Get ready for passenger drones[0], delivery drones[1] and just drones in general, because this is what this breakthrough means really. [0] [LINK] [1] [VIDEO]

@jcims2023 · in “DJI Mavic 3 Pro”

Zipline has built an interesting asymmetric design that's remarkably quiet. Mark Rober featured it in one of his recent videos. [VIDEO]

@pfych2023 · in “FAA Seeks Public Input on Drone Operations”

After watching Mark Rober's video on Zipline[^1] it'll be really cool to see how their technology works in the US. Hopefully the FAA can approve their operations. [1]: [VIDEO]

@lathiat2023 · in “Are Gas Stoves Causing Asthma?”

I'd have to go hunt down the numbers again but the studies were claiming something like 12% of Asthma was potentially gas cooking triggered, but it could be 3% if more of them used better ventilation. It was also super common here in Australia growing up in the 90s to have gas stoves installed under the old wood stove Chimney with no active exhaust fan. That's much less common in my city now since we've built a large portion of the total housing stock since then, but it would make sense for kids in the 80s & 90s to have been maybe more affected by this than now. It's also super common in brand new 90s builds just to have a fan in the roof at roof height, the same as you'd have in a bathroom. Only in the 2000s have the rangehoods right above the stove become the standard. Not sure how effective those roof fans would be in practice against these kinds of pollutants. However, on those new builds that all have rangehoods, here in Australia they are all so loud. Increasingly our building regulations require them ducted and usually out the roof. They cannot deal with the static pressure and sit at 65-70dB and even when they are working, people don't want to use them. That's on the lowest fan speed. Without any ducting or being ducted out a wall only 30cm or so, they are still kindof noisy but not mind bendingly so. At my brand new house, and those of many others I've asked (it's not just a bad install here) you get a real sense of relief when you turn it off. It's wild. What upsets

@ryanmercer2023 · in “Ask HN: What ever happened to the “coming wave” of delivery drones?”

I don't know if it has been shared in this thread but Mark Rober did a video earlier this year about drones actively doing medical deliveries in Africa [VIDEO]

@Flockster2023 · in “FAA Authorizes Zipline to Deliver Commercial Packages Using Drones”

A video from Mark Rober about Zipline, to get an idea. I was very impressed when I first heard of them. [VIDEO]

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@lathiat2023 · in “FAA Authorizes Zipline to Deliver Commercial Packages Using Drones”

They actually solved that. Watch Mark Robers video at 13m50s: [VIDEO] However this FAA approval is apparently for the Gen1 fixed wing plane (which is quieter than a drone anyway). Their Gen2 "drone" design is barely audible.

@mrtksn2023 · in “DJI announces the sub-250 gram drone mini 4 pro”

Should't be too far away, the commercial drones of Zipline are supposed to be super quiet. Here is video demonstrating the tech: [VIDEO]

@anarticle2023 · in “An Underground Lunch Delivery Train Comes to the Atlanta Suburbs”

Looks interesting, trenching that will probably not be fun. Hope it works out, esp getting city to work with them. The first one to solve this idea is probably the next trillion dollar company. Surprised no one has mentioned Zipline yet, the drone startup that got their start in Rwanda with gliders delivering blood by air. They went on to make a quiet drone that uses a cable attached pod to accurately place deliveries: [VIDEO]

@bayindirh2024 · in “What went wrong at Techstars”

Zipline also delivers on-demand blood to hospitals in Africa over forests [0] in a consistent and time-constrained manner. I don't think Amazon can or want to compete with them on that space. They are not in "here's your hamburger" business only. [0]: [VIDEO]

@ElijahLynn2024 · in “Airbus electric air taxi makes its debut”

Sound is my biggest concern too, seconded by visual pollution of the sky. The first concern has some hope, as there are some new innovations in drone noise reduction. One company is Zipline, here is Mark Rober explaining how they are quieter, with a demo. * [VIDEO] (Amazing Invention- This Drone Will Change Everything - Mark Rober) * [LINK] (How Do Zipline's Silent Propellers Work?) Another company is Wing [LINK] (owned by Alphabet) > [LINK]

@Havoc2024 · in “Why African startups don't always need to expand across the continent”

I'm more surprised why we don't see more of the opposite - western startups testing their ideas in Africa as a sandbox and then expanding out. Not a huge amount of disposable income there sure, but for the right product its the perfect testing ground. e.g. zipline doing on demand blood deliveries to hospital in Rwanda. I bet their recent US drone authorization was in no small part due to their ability to point to a live operation doing at scale life/death critical deliveries with success. [VIDEO]

@pedalpete2024 · in “Drone startup Zipline hits 1M deliveries, looks to restaurants as it cont”

Their medical delivery stuff is so impressive [VIDEO] , I'm a bit disappointed they weren't able to find another more valuable market than "we'll stick food in a box and get it to you faster".

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@lathiat2024 · in “Troubled Amazon drone delivery program faces latest challenge: Annoyed residents”

Mark Rober covered the “Zipline” drones which are near silent, unlike almost any other drone you hear. There’s a demo in the video. Done by varying the propeller design so that the noise is spread out over many frequencies instead of concentrated in the buzzy band. I also remember Apple talking about doing the same in their MacBook pro fans at one point. Varying the blade pitch from blade to blade to do the same. [VIDEO]

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