Estonia’s delivery bots were a game changer - they reduced last-mile delivery costs by almost 40% in urban areas and had surprisingly good weather adaptibility, even in snow (though they did get stuck somtimes lol).
Comment on In China, delivery robots now ride the subway to restock 7-Eleven stores
drmoose@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
Seems a bit of a publicity stunt as there must be a better way to do this than to drop logistics on to human subways? That being said inner city delivery bots are great idea. I’d see them all the time in Estonia a few years ago and food delivery should be entirely automated.
MysteriousSophon21@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
Meh, I think I like the idea of 1 truck pulling up to a docking bay, them all driving out the back and hopping on the mostly empty cars in slow times that are already going to the subway platforms where the deliveries need to go. It’s either that or having to go through every subway entry point to drop them off. I think this will get flack because people are anti automation, but if it was people pushing carts to restock them manually I would still prefer them all getting in one vehicle to the subway and all getting on there and hopping off 1 at each stop. The product is all coming from one source, so why have 43 routes from place to sub station and then 43 routes back. If it is actually busy enough that it is holding up entry somewhere, having it in one location and streamlining it sounds nicer as well. It’s not like the people can bring carts through turnstyles anyways, so they are already entering through a designated entry if the 7-11’s are on the platforms. (They might not be, they could be elsewhere, but the article says downstairs).
AppleTea@lemmy.zip 13 hours ago
Dozens of squat delivery robots have now begun riding subway trains across the network during off-peak hours, exiting at each station where a 7-Eleven is located to make deliveries, according to a report by local news outlet SZNews.
“In the past, delivery workers had to park above ground, unload goods, and manually push them into subway stations,” Li Yanyan, a manager at one of the 7-Eleven stores involved in the project, told SZNews. “Now, with robots, it’s much easier and more convenient.”
I think this is only for 7/11s that are part of the underground subway architecture? I don’t think the robots would be cost effective compared to a truck if this was for restocking any old corner store.
RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 11 hours ago
Those Starship drones are cute as hell
realitista@lemmus.org 9 hours ago
No it’s “disruption”, just offload all your delivery costs onto public infrastructure and fill up the subway cars with deliveries instead of people. Profit.
drmoose@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
Tbf all delivery methods use public infrastructure.
realitista@lemmus.org 8 hours ago
Okay I guess I could phrase that better but this is the first time they’ve used public mass transit infrastructure that I’ve heard of. I will edit my comment to “mass transit”.
drmoose@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
Yeah tbh that’s kinda bad. I dont wan’t delivery trucks in my subway