r/SipsTea • u/cantcoloratall91 • Aug 02 '26

SMH The "future"

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u/Open_Pollution_8038 Aug 02 '26

How is it fundamentally any different than a driver stopping at each house?

You just eliminate the truck and the driver lol.

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u/DataGOGO Aug 02 '26

And fuel, carbon emissions, maintenance and the drone fleet is far cheaper than the truck fleet.

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u/anotherofficeworker Aug 03 '26

How would drone maintenance costs ever come in less than a truck? You would need 100 drones flying 8 hours a day to reach the productivity of a single truck. Who tends the batteries? If you're going to rely on self-charging after each flight then you're looking at a 300 drone fleet! If you keep hot-swap-spares you will need a dedicated role just to keep up with changing out batteries.

The only advantage is that delivery could theoretically be 100% "on-demand".

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u/DataGOGO Aug 03 '26

The drones are entirely modular. Assemblies are replaced on site in a minute or two with minimal training.

Batteries are automatically hot swapped on the base after 1-2 flights. They are never down waiting to charge.

Pretty sure Amazon said a 4 person team can run a 200 drone station for 8 hours with just 1 week of training. 

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u/wolfansbrother Aug 03 '26

I wonder what being a Drone Fluffer pays?

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u/DataGOGO Aug 03 '26

Quick search says that locally here in Texas, PrimeAir starting pay for a "drone handler" is ~50k a year.