Hopefully they do a better job than Kevin Costner did with that movie! That was pretty bad!
Tech giants have been talking about delivery drones for a very long time, and Amazon even ran a test pilot which was successful. UPS has drones flying off from van roofs! However, due to security reasons, drones are still not acceptable as a means of delivery to some people. The postman is happy, for now. But is society?
Autolivery
Meet Autolivery – an automated delivery system that will handle the entire delivery process all by itself. You see, now the postman is looking worried and society is not.
Instead of using drones to drop delivery packages around the city, Ford wants to automate the heck out of the delivery process.
The name itself, as you might have guessed, is a play on the words delivery and automation. Vice President of Ford's Research and Advance Engineering department, Ken Washington, says that the creative team had this idea and it was an instant hit.
The Concept
The concept is quite simple. Ford will use automated self-driving vans to deliver packages across the area. The idea is to use a combination of automated vans and drones, and take the people out of the equation.
So Ford wants to compete with UPS now?
So why take the trouble of trying to do something like this when there are courier services that are happily doing it for you as just briefly insinuated? People are tired of being stuck in traffic and dealing with signal lights. The only problem is the "last 15 meters" which is believed to be the hardest part of the delivery assignment. You can get your parcels from a plane and onto a delivery van automatically. But, how do you deliver a parcel using the steps and navigating around the front yard to the door step?
It is possible, however, it is a challenge and the team at Ford is well aware of the situation. This is where the drones come in. So the idea is to use planes, vans, and drones to deliver the parcels. At this point, it is also important that the retailers are happy with the system and that the people in general accept this new way of delivery. They should be bot-happy.
What happens if someone picks it up and steals it from Ford?
Carr-E
Another thing to note over here is that even though the idea of using drones is pretty cool and everything, the fact remains that drones cannot land anywhere and everywhere. This is why Ford has come up with the concept of Carr-E, to solve this mobility problem. This is a small spare wheel sized bot which is round in shape, and will be used to deliver parcels across neighborhoods using roads and pathways.
Ford, as we all know it by now, has been pushing for an environment friendly eco-system and this is just one of the many ways that it is trying to solve the 2 most common problems that automobiles are somewhat responsible for – congestion and pollution.
The employees at Ford are constantly encouraged to pitch ideas and this was one of them. This shows everyone what a wonderful place Ford is to work at. The current plan is to have a fully automated delivery vehicle by the end of the year 2021 and by the looks of it; Ford is preparing itself to deliver just this.
How does this get up steps? Will Ford sell this technology to UPS and Fed/Ex?
Of course, these mini vans and bots are not going to come to a neighborhood near you very soon. There are several challenges that are yet to be met. For example, what happens when a young kid is looking for a free joy ride and decides to hop on one of these mini bots that are out for a delivery? Or some kid throws a football at one and it is a direct hit, or a touchdown!?
That is vandalism for sure! Yes, these things need to be worked out.