Recently, I watched a fascinating show on Nova entitled: “Rise of the Drones” and as usual, I never expected to get a logistics thought out of the show however, as usual, one develops. A key scientist (Missy Cummings, former F/18 fighter pilot and now MIT Scientist) being interviewed for the show had actually said “imagine a drone delivering your FedEx, UPS, and your Amazon package…”. Now that got me thinking.
First, I had no idea how far the technology for drones has developed in the last 10 years. What they can do and what they are doing is absolutely amazing. A scary item is they are readily available with a quick search on Amazon you can find many “drones” for less than $1,000 which can do a lot of things (not the least of which from a privacy concern standpoint is take pictures).
Here is one I found which I found especially intriguing for less than $750 and it advertises itself as having everything you need to “start aerial filming”. It is called the DJI Phantom Aerial UAV Drone.
So, what is the implication for logistics? Well, just like what I have been discussion relative to 3D Printing, there is a chance this could revolutionize air freight delivery in the package space.
Think of these key items:
Now, imagine the following scenario:
While I would have said this is far in the future 2 days ago, now that I have watched this show I am not sure how far it is. Once again, another technology which not only reduces miles driven, reduces demand for drivers and reduces costs but it actually eliminates many of them completely.
Editors Note: Original blog from “10x Logistics - Leading Revolutionary Change” Kevin O’Meara