Uber eyes drones for food delivery

Uber said Wednesday it plans to speed up restaurant meal delivery by using drones for its Uber Eats service, in the latest effort by the ride-hailing giant to disrupt the transport sector.

At its Uber Elevate Summit, the company said it had regulatory approval to begin tests of delivering food by drone in the region of San Diego, California.

"Our goal is to expand Uber Eats drone delivery so we can provide more options to more people at the tap of a button," said Luke Fischer, head of flight operations at Uber Elevate.

"We believe that Uber is uniquely positioned to take on this challenge as we're able to leverage the Uber Eats network of restaurant partners and delivery partners as well as the aviation experience and technology of Uber Elevate."

For logistical reasons, the drones will not deliver directly to customers, but to a safe drop-off location where an Uber Eats driver will complete the order.

In the future, Uber hopes to land the drones on parked vehicles located near each delivery location to allow the final delivery by hand.

Uber said it had developed a proprietary airspace management system called Elevate Cloud Systems that will guide the drones to their location.

While not the first food drone delivery service, Uber is aiming for a potentially large-scale service through its food service partners across the United States.

Initial testing in San Diego was done with McDonald's, and will be expanded to include additional Uber Eats restaurants later this year.

The drone service is part of Uber's move to the skies as it seeks to develop an aerial ride-sharing network tied in with its smartphone app to help people avoid traffic congestion on the ground.

Uber said the drone service will provide data that will help manage its air network, and eventually allow the aircraft to operate autonomously.

New autonomous car
Separately, Uber unveiled its newest self-driving vehicle produced by Volvo Cars.

The Volvo XC90 prototype will be "capable of fully driving itself," according to an Uber statement, with sensors atop and built into the vehicle to allow it to operate and maneuver in an urban environment.

"Working in close partnership with companies like Volvo is a key ingredient to effectively building a safe, scalable, self-driving fleet," said Eric Meyhofer, CEO of Uber Advanced Technologies Group.

Uber signed a deal in 2017 with Volvo, which is owned by China's Geely, to produce "tens of thousands" of self-driving cars for a fleet of autonomous taxis.

Volvo said it will use a similar autonomous base for the introduction of its first commercially available autonomous drive technology in the early 2020s.

This week, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said he does not expect fully self-driving vehicles to be deployed for at least 15 years, but that autonomous features will be gradually introduced and that some "easy" trips may be made autonomously.

Uber also unveiled the latest versions of its electric bikes and scooters that round out its shared transportation system.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Amazon says drone deliveries coming 'within months'

LAS VEGAS -- Amazon said Wednesday it expects to begin large-scale deliveries by drone in the coming months as it unveiled its newest design for its "Prime Air" fleet.

Jeff Wilke, head of Amazon's consumer operations, told the company's Machine Learning, Automation, Robotics and Space conference in Las Vegas that drones would play a role in ramping up efforts to shorten delivery times for many items to just 1 day for Amazon Prime members.

"We've been hard at work building fully electric drones that can fly up to 15 miles (25 kilometers) and deliver packages under 5 pounds (2.3 kilos) to customers in less than 30 minutes," Wilke said in a blog post.

"And, with the help of our world-class fulfillment and delivery network, we expect to scale Prime Air both quickly and efficiently, delivering packages via drone to customers within months."

Amazon offered no details about where or when the drone deliveries would be operational. 

The company conducted its first test of drone deliveries in 2016 in Britain. At the time, it said US regulations made it harder to use drones for delivery in the United States.

Wilke said Wednesday that Amazon has invested to make its delivery drones safer and more efficient.

"It can do vertical takeoffs and landings -- like a helicopter," he said. "And it's efficient and aerodynamic -- like an airplane. It also easily transitions between these two modes, from vertical-mode to airplane mode, and back to vertical mode."

The new drones are also designed to be stable even in gusty wind conditions, Wilke added.

"We know customers will only feel comfortable receiving drone deliveries if they know the system is incredibly safe," he said. 

"So we're building a drone that isn't just safe, but independently safe, using the latest artificial intelligence technologies."

Amazon said earlier this year it would speed up its free delivery for its Prime subscribers, currently 2 days for most items, to a single day, with North American customers the first to benefit.

It said it would spend some $800 million in the current quarter in the effort to shorten delivery times. It is also hiring more drivers and offering employees an opportunity to launch their own delivery enterprise with a subsidy from Amazon.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Drones paralyze British airport, grounding Christmas travellers

LONDON - Britain sent troops to its second-biggest airport after an unprecedented attempt to cripple Christmas travel with large drones forced all flights to be cancelled on Thursday.

As thousands of passengers waited at Gatwick Airport, south of London, police hunted unsuccessfully for the operators of the large drones which reappeared near the airfield every time the airport tried to reopen the runway.

Police said there was no indication of a terrorism motive behind the devices, which first appeared on Wednesday night.

"We will be deploying the armed forces," Defence Minister Gavin Williamson told reporters. "We are there to assist and do everything we can."

Europe's air traffic control agency Eurocontrol said the airport would remain closed until 0600 GMT on Friday.

The airport said flights would remain shut down until further notice on a day when 115,000 people were scheduled to pass through, many en route to seasonal breaks.

Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesman condemned the standoff as "irresponsible and completely unacceptable".

Passenger Ani Kochiashvili had been bound for Georgia but spent six hours overnight sitting on a plane with her children.

"I'm very annoyed because I'm with two kids, a three-month-old and three-year-old," she told Reuters by phone among thousands camped in the terminal.

"They require a lot of space and food and changing and all that, and the airport is crazy busy so it's challenging."

Flights were halted at 2103 GMT on Wednesday after two drones were spotted near the airfield, triggering the biggest disruption at Gatwick since a volcanic ash cloud in 2010.

Police said more than 20 units were hunting the operators near Gatwick airport, 50 km (30 miles) south of London.

Transport minister Chris Grayling said it was clearly a deliberate act. "This is a commercial-sized drone," he said. "Every time Gatwick tries to re-open the runway, the drones reappear."

Grayling temporarily lifted night-flying restrictions at other airports to ease congestion caused by diverted aircraft, Sky News reported.

"COMPLETE MAYHEM"

With a surge in public enthusiasm for drones, there has been an increase in near-collisions by unmanned aircraft and commercial jets in recent years.

The number of near misses between private drones and aircraft in Britain more than tripled between 2015 and 2017, with 92 incidents recorded last year, according to the UK Airprox Board regulator.

Richard Parker, head of air traffic management technology firm Altitude Angel, said this was the first time a major airport had been hit by such a sustained and deliberate incursion into its airspace.

"It's sophisticated, not from a technology side, but it's organized. People have charged lots of batteries, and are deliberately trying to avoid being caught, probably by driving around to different locations," he told Reuters.

"It really is unprecedented."

Gatwick's Chief Operating Officer Chris Woodroofe described one of the drones as a heavy industrial model.

"The police advice is that it would be dangerous to seek to shoot the drone down because of what may happen to the stray bullets," he told BBC radio.

Drone expert Peter Lee of Portsmouth University said he and others had been anticipating disruption.

"One of my concerns about today is that it may well encourage copy-cat incidents because you can achieve a high amount of disruption for a very, very low cost," he said.

It is illegal to fly drones within 1 km (0.6 mile) of a British airport boundary, punishable by five years in prison.

Even after Gatwick re-opens, the backlog and disruption are expected to last for days.

Gatwick said it was working with its airlines, the biggest of which also include British Airways and Norwegian , on recovery plans once the runway re-opens.

Safety was its "foremost priority", it said.

Gatwick, which competes with Europe's busiest airport Heathrow, west of London, had previously said Sunday would be its busiest day of the festive period.

Passengers took to Twitter to share their stories.

One waiting at the airport said: "At Gatwick Airport, drone chaos, surprisingly good natured, but complete mayhem." 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Medical delivery drones take flight over Rwanda

"Three, two, one, launch!" And with that, catapulted from a ramp, the small fixed-wing drone buzzes into the air towards its pre-programmed destination, the Kabgayi hospital two kilometers away.

On Friday Rwanda inaugurated a drone operation that its backers hope will kickstart a revolution in the supply of medical care in rural parts of Africa, in the first instance by delivering batches of blood to 21 clinics in the west of the country.

Maternal mortality rates in Africa are among the highest in the world, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), largely due to postpartum hemorrhage caused by lack of access to simple blood transfusions.

Rwanda is no exception, and the situation here is worsened by the topography of a country dubbed "the land of a thousand hills" as well as intense seasonal rains making the transport of blood by road often long and difficult.

Blood "is a very precious commodity so you cannot just stock a lot of it in every single heath center," said Keller Rinaudo, CEO of Zipline, a California-based robotics company that designed the 15 drones and the base housing them in Muhanga, 50 kilometers (31 miles) west of the capital Kigali.

FASTER, MORE EFFICIENT
Rinaudo hopes his drone delivery system will "allow the Rwandan government to instantly deliver life-saving transfusions to any citizen in the country in 15 to 30 minutes."

US package-delivery giant UPS and global vaccine alliance Gavi have invested $1.1 million (one million euros) in the Zipline project, one of a handful on the continent seeking to harness the potential of delivery drones to overcome poor infrastructure.

For the Rwandan government blood delivery by drone is not cheaper, but it promises to be much faster.

The drones dubbed "Zips" are shaped like a fat-bellied miniature plane with a two-metre (six-foot) wingspan.

They are battery-powered with a range of around 150 kilometers, weigh 13 kilos (29 pounds) and can carry a cargo of about 1.5 kilos, or three bags of blood.

Flying at up to 70 kilometers per hour, it is predicted each drone could make as many as 150 deliveries a day.

At the tent that serves as a launch station, Zipline technicians monitor the drones from laptops while others prepare the payload: small cardboard boxes with paper parachutes that will hold the transfusion blood and be dropped from a height of around 20 meters.

As the test flights were carried out curious residents peered through the fence, watching as the drones were flung into the air, returning after dropping their cargo at the hospital, and landing on an inflatable mattress.

Zipline plans to open a second base in Rwanda next year meaning the whole of the tiny country will be within range.

"These flights will save lives," said Gregg Svingen, head of communications at UPS. "Today it is blood, tomorrow it will be vaccines."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Drones swoop into CES as interest surges

LAS VEGAS -- On a dusty stretch of Nevada desert, a quadcopter drone kicks up a small cloud as it takes off. It then trails its operator on a drive across the flat terrain, filming the motion from a short distance above.

The AirDog drone was designed to capture the intensity of extreme sports that have been difficult to access -- surfing, skiing, off-road biking and similar activities.

"We felt we could change the way video is captured in action sports," said Agris Kipurs, co-founder or AirDog, created by a group of Latvian engineers and now based in California, which is starting beta-testing on its products later this year.

AirDog, one of dozens of drones being shown at the Consumer Electronics Show this week in Las Vegas, is aiming for "an unassisted experience, so all you need is the tracking device on your wrist," Kipurs told AFP during a demonstration in the desert outside Las Vegas.

Drones are showing up in a variety of shapes and sizes at the huge electronics fair, which has for the first time a space dedicated to "unmanned systems."

More than a dozen companies are displaying the flying devices, for uses ranging from remote-controlled toys to professional filmmaking to industrial and agricultural applications.

The Hexo+ drone from Franco-American Squadrone System is another drone on display that can be pre-programmed to follow and film a person or object from any conceivable angle using a smartphone.

In a similar category, the show got a look at the Nixie drone, a flying camera which launches from one's wrist and won a competition last year sponsored by Intel for wearable technology.

"We think drones have a possibility to change out lives in positive ways," said Intel chief executive Brian Krzanich at a CES keynote speech where he demonstrated Intel-powered drones from Ascending Technologies that navigated obstacles on stage.

Fighters, micro drones

South Korean-based Byrobot is showing its "drone fighter," which enables its users to simulate aerial combat with infrared signals to fire at enemy aircraft.

When one of the drones is hit, its lights flash and hand controller vibrates, signalling it is downed, according to the company, which offers an optional camera with the device.

With US regulations on drone still uncertain, some drone developers are looking for ways to avoid being grounded.

The Zano drone, a so-called nano-drone designed for aerial photography and selfies, weighs in at just 55 grams (two ounces) to be under the current limit of 60 grams to be regulated in the United States, said Thomas Dietrich, design director for the British-based Torquino Group.

"We've squeezed a lot of technology into a very small package," Dietrich said. "It's a smart device. It's all gesture based and it has obstacle avoidance."

At $279, he said, the drone "is affordable for everyone."

A full lineup of drones is on display from the French electronics group Parrot, which has expanded its offerings over the past year in both consumer and industrial unmanned vehicles.

"The past year was very good" for drone sales, said Parrot marketing director Nicolas Halftermeyer.

Parrot recently introduced its Bebop drone for the consumer segment, which can take high-definition video and be controlled from a tablet or smartphone.

It also sells a professional mapping drone called eBee and another designed for agricultural use called eBee Ag.

"This part of the business is growing very fast," he said.

The Consumer Electronics Association, which organizes the show, said the market for these devices is hitting new heights as the technology previously used for military aircraft is adapted for consumer and industrial activities.

The show includes a panel discussion on the plans for US regulations.

According to CEA research, the global market for consumer drones will approach $130 million in revenue in 2015, up 55 percent from 2014, with unit sales of consumer drones expected to reach 400,000.

Revenue from drone sales is expected to top $1 billion in just five years, CEA said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Russian chain delivers pizza by drone

MOSCOW -- A Russian fast food chain claims to have taken a slice out of the competition by becoming the first to offer pizza delivery by drone.

Dodo Pizza in the northern Russian city of Syktyvkar posted a video online over the weekend showing the first airdrops of pizzas to customers and promised the service was not just a one-time PR stunt.

"We already sold six pizzas in one and a half hours using a drone, it is a real business model," manager Ilya Farafonov told AFP.

"You should see the faces of people when their pizza arrives from the sky, it's like magic," he added.

In the video, a pizza agent in an orange vest dispatched to a local park is shown taking orders from a gaggle of hungry students. Moments later, a tiny copter hones into view and lowers a pizza to the customers on a piece of extending rope.

"People didn't want to order pizza before, but now they do," said Farafonov.

The fast food chain hopes to expand delivery by drone to 18 other Russian cities, flying pizzas to beaches and university campuses.

The only snag in the new delivery method is that the destination and route of each drone flight has to be carefully planned and pre-approved by authorities, Farafonov said.

Although other chains, such as Domino's in the UK and a company in India, have previously attempted to deliver pizza by drone, Farafonov said these had never developed into "real delivery."

Retail giant Amazon announced last year it was looking into delivering its packages by drone and several companies already use the unmanned aircraft to distribute their products.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com