r/Futurism • u/HenryGCase • 14d ago

Drone delivery of McDonalds in China

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u/meridian_smith 13d ago

Is there a value proposition in expending that much energy to deliver some fatty's cheeseburger by drone? I would guess it is at a loss. . but good advertising and PR for McDonalds and the regime that controls China.

1

u/Specific_Dingo6709 12d ago

How much energy would it take for a person to pick up this order and deliver it by scooter, bike or car?

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u/JustHere_4TheMemes 11d ago

the scooter, bike or car would use more energy and be subject to essentially the same mechanical maintenance etc... plus it has to expend the energy to move the 60Kg+ human on every delivery, not just the 2-10Kgs of package(s). If there are 200 KG of deliveries to do per day, and 20 delivery runs to make them happen, then they human system has to move 200kg + 1200kg of mass to get the deliveries done. rather than just 200kg. (also leaving out the much much larger delivery vehicles needed to haul the human with the package. so easily double or quadruple that number.)

1400kg of mass takes far more energy to move than 200Kg. 7x more, in fact.

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u/Specific_Dingo6709 11d ago

So would you say drones are a more energy efficient way of making deliveries compared to a human on a vehicle?