By Evan Ackerman20 Jul 2015 14:00 GMTFirst FAA Photo: Flirtey

Flirtey is a company that’s working to commercialize the consumer delivery drone, which is something that we’ve been very, very skeptical about. On Friday, Flirtey partnered with Virginia Tech and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to conduct the very first officially-approved drone delivery in the United States. Flirtey called it a “Kitty Hawk moment” for the entire delivery drone industry, but we’re not so sure.

Once a year, there’s a free rural health clinic in Wise, Va. The clinic tries to plan ahead by bringing all the medication along that it’ll need for the whole day, but if they run out of anything, the supplying pharmacy is an impractical 90-minute drive away. This year, NASA Langley provided a semi-autonomous (remotely piloted) Cirrus SR-22 light aircraft to shuttle meds most of the distance (local airport to local airport), and then Flirtey’s pixhawk-powered hexacopter filled in for the final local airport to health clinic run, a distance of about a mile:

“This is a Kitty Hawk moment not just for Flirtey, but for the entire industry,” said Flirtey Chief Executive Officer Matt Sweeny. “Proving that unmanned aircraft can deliver lifesaving medicines is an important step toward a future where unmanned aircraft make routine autonomous deliveries of your everyday purchases.”

We can’t fault Flirtey for being excited to pull this off, but it’s important to take this delivery in context, and we don’t think that that context is a “Kitty Hawk moment.” The reason this works right now isn’t just that it was approved by the FAA, which would suggest that drone deliveries are ready to go except for regulatory approval: it’s more that this delivery took place in as close to a structured environment as is possible outdoors. In other words, there’s a predefined launch point, a predefined landing point, a carefully thought out route that avoids things like trees and power lines, and a surety that there won’t be any thing else flying in the area. Flirtey’s drone doesn’t have to have to do any sort of active sense and avoid, so as far as we know, really it’s just GPS waypoint following with a payload. It’s great that they made it work, but it’s not a demonstration of any specific technology that will bring delivery drones any closer to realistic usefulness: it’s simply a drone navigating autonomously from GPS waypoint to GPS waypoint.

Photo: Flirtey

I’m also not sold on the practicality of the whole “skycrane” idea. I get that you want to keep your dangerous and expensive drone as far away from any unsecured location on the ground as possible, but in my opinion, this is trying to solve a problem that should instead just be avoided completely. Based on all of these reasons that we discussed a year and a half ago why consumer delivery drones aren’t going to work anytime soon (none of which have been solved, or even mitigated very much), I just don’t see this demo as that much of a game changer. As far as I can tell, it doesn’t do anything to further the cause of consumer delivery drones at all.

So, forget consumer delivery drones. Just because it may eventually be technologically possible to deliver online retail items or fast food to consumers with autonomous drones doesn’t mean that it makes sense to do so (commercially or otherwise), now or ever. But there are all kinds of situations in which delivery drones really can be valuable, and delivering medicine is one of those. DHL had the right idea when they demonstrated a drone delivery service that can deliver urgently needed goods to thinly populated or remote areas or in emergencies, and we’re excited to see more of that.

Flirtey’s demo was a good start, but if there’s going to be a “Kitty Hawk moment” for delivery drones, it’ll be in some situation where you don’t have the option of just driving for 5 minutes instead. It’ll be a situation where a delivery drone is the only option, an opportunity to show that rather than just making something more convenient, drones can make something happen that would otherwise be impossible with any other technology.

[ Flirtey ] via [ Roanoke Star ]

第一局

first faa照片：flirtey

flirtey是一家&rsquo；的致力于把消费者送货无人机，这是我们&rsquo；已经很，很怀疑。上星期五，flirtey与弗吉尼亚理工大学和美国联邦航空管理局 ； ；在美国进行的第一次正式批准无人机送货。flirtey称之为&ldquo；小鹰时刻&rdquo；对整个送货无人机产业，但是我们；再不那么肯定。

每年一次，有一个自由；农村卫生室在明智的，弗吉尼亚州诊所试图提前计划把所有药物沿这&rsquo；需要整整一天，但如果他们失去什么，供给制药是一个不切实际的90分钟车程。今年，美国国家航空航天局兰利提供半自动（遥控）Cirrus简- 22轻型飞机接送药大部分的距离（当地机场，当地机场），然后flirtey &rsquo；的pixhawk动力hexacopter填充最后的地方机场诊所跑，距离约一英里：

< P > < / P >

&ldquo；这是小鹰时刻不只是flirtey，但对于整个行业，&rdquo；说flirtey首席执行官马特肌肉萎缩。&ldquo；证明了无人驾驶飞机可以提供救命药是走向未来的无人驾驶飞机使你的日常采购日常自治交付的重要一步。&rdquo；

我们可以'；被兴奋的拉这一关没有故障flirtey，但真的需要；提供上下文的重要，我们就不要；认为 ；认为，语境是一个&ldquo；小鹰时刻。&rdquo；这个作品现在根本原因；不仅仅是由美国联邦航空局的批准，这将表明，无人机送货准备去除外nbsp；监管部门的批准：它&rsquo；的，这个交付发生在接近一个结构化的环境是可能的户外。换句话说，有&rsquo；的预定发射点，预定着陆点，一个经过深思熟虑的路线，避免了像树木和电线，并保证，不会&rsquo；不要任何东西在该地区飞行。flirtey &rsquo；的雄蜂doesn&rsquo；没有做任何积极意义和避免，所以到目前为止我们所知道的，真的'；只是GPS航点以下与有效载荷。这是他们的伟大；使它的工作，但它&rsquo；不显示任何特定的技术，将送货无人机更接近现实的用处：这只是一个简单的无人机自主导航；GPS航点的GPS航点。

photo：flirtey
我&rsquo；我也没有整个“skycrane &rdquo；思想性。我明白你想把你的危险和昂贵的无人驾驶飞机尽可能地远离任何不安全的位置，但在我看来，这是试图解决的问题，而应完全避免。基于这些原因，我们讨论了一年半前为什么消费者送货无人机是&rsquo；不会工作很快（没有得到解决，甚至缓解非常）不，我只是没有看到这个演示；那么多的游戏规则。据我所知，那&rsquo；不做任何进一步的消费者送货无人机的所有原因。

所以忘记消费者送货无人机。只是因为它可能最终可能提供在线零售项目或快餐自主无人机doesn&rsquo消费者；不是说这样做是有意义的（商业或其他），现在和永远。但有各种情况下，交付无人机真的可以是有价值的，并提供医药是其中之一。DHL有权知道他们演示了无人机送货服务，可以提供急需的货物稀少或偏远地区或在紧急情况下，我们'；我们非常高兴看到更多。

flirtey &rsquo；的演示是一个很好的开始，但如果有；要有&ldquo；小鹰时刻&rdquo；送货无人机，它&rsquo；会在一些情况下，你不；没有只是开车5分钟而不是选择。它&rsquo；将一个送货无人机是唯一的选择，一个表现的机会，而不是让事情更方便，无人机可以让事情发生，否则是不可能与任何其他技术。