Matternet drones to deliver mail in Switzerland this summer

[Shawn Knight]

Amazon isn’t the only entity interested in using drones to deliver parcels. Swiss WorldCargo, the air cargo division of Swiss International Air Lines, is working with the Swiss Post and US-based transportation drone manufacturer Matternet to test the practicality of using drones in various stages of package transportation.

Specifically, the trio aim to clarify the legal framework, consider local conditions and explore the technical and business capabilities of drones through the use of a pilot program that’ll take place this summer in Switzerland.

Matternet ONE drones will be used during testing. Built specifically for the transportation of small payloads, these aerial vehicles are capable of carrying up to 2.2 pounds of cargo a distance of more than 12 miles on a single battery charge. The ONE can fly autonomously along a set route generated by Matternet’s proprietary cloud software.

Drones are expected to have a huge impact on a number of different industries. Whether it is ultimately in the field of internal logistics like moving stuff around inside a warehouse or the much more imaginative last mile delivery of physical goods, however, remains to be seen.

Because commercial use of the technology is such a new idea, the legality surrounding their use are still largely a gray area. Last month, Amazon was granted permission to begin testing in the US although extensive regulations forced the company to move operations to Canada.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/60476-matternet-drones-deliver-mail-switzerland-summer.html

 

[psycros]

When drones have replaced everyone in the workplace, who are these companies going to sell their wares to? Nobody will have an income. I'm predicting it right now: the invasion of commercial drones will be an unmitigated disaster as security and safety issues along with worker replacement concerns will cause a huge pushback within a decade. Over-reliance on automation has done virtually no good to society, with the possible exception of robots used for rescue and scientific exploration. Even machines that handle dangerous materials are typically a symptom of a disease rather than a treatment: most of those materials are being used to manufacture things that only make us weaker, stupider and less healthy.

 

[Guest]

psycros
So your saying its better to hire some dumb *****s to do the job with who knows what quality and have a lot of human factor accidents with payouts, repairs, and w/e, than have a drone or robot that can do same job faster, with better quality, with minimum risks. Would you prefer to move toxic wastes by your self or a robot do that for you?
screw the society, you live in real world, adapt or get thrown out, time to go and learn to use brain
P.S. someone should really write a bot for captcha, its so awesome that it took me about 100 refreshes and 20 tries, I managed to guess whats written, im awesome

 

[Guest]

Capitalism won't survive if automation takes over. If robots replace all of our jobs, no one will have any money to buy the products or services companies will produce. We will have to redesign our economic system. We may not even need money if all of our jobs are replaced by robots because none of us will be working.