This Week in Logistics Tech
High-tech origami, stolen ideas, horseflies delivering parcels, and more!
An Indian startup is changing how India gets its milk- which up until this point has involved a poorly organized system that has resulted in as much as 68% of milk being tainted. Why tainted? Delivery people will water down the milk so that they can increase their load and, thus, increase their income. To hide the discoloration from being watered down, they will add things like detergent, white paint and refined oil to the milk water. Yum.
Supr Daily is solving all the problems by delivering fresh milk directly from farmers with zero crazy additives. And even more impressive, this superior product is actually cheaper and more convenient than the milk paint water that it competes with.
This is the first product on the market to use software, which makes communicating any changes in one’s order much easier. And because of the sustainable routes and direct relationship with suppliers, costs can be kept lower. Supr Daily is currently in 15 neighborhoods in Mumbai and has completed 500,000 deliveries in the last year.
The Apsara (Aerial Platform Supporting Autonomous Resupply Actions) drone is changing up the traditional drone design. By using cardboard, the 3-foot-wide Apsara can carry small payloads (up to 2lbs of cargo), land exactly where you want it, and then disappear. I mean… not in a David Blaine sort of magic way. Rather, it disintegrates into the environment because it’s cardboard. It takes one hour to fold and tape the drone together (yeah. tape.), and then it’s ready to deliver emergency supplies into remote and dangerous regions in a cost-effective way without permanently littering the environment.
Next step, the team is designing a drone made out of mushrooms, which will allow it to disappear within hours. On the next iteration, I suggest using ice cream because it melts super fast. That just seems like good science to me. But not everyone is as forward thinking as I am.
Along with the company’s fourth-quarter results, Musk stated, “Later this year, we expect to finalize locations for Gigafactories 3, 4 and possibly 5.”
Model 3 production begins in July, and with an increase in pre-orders, Tesla needs increased capacity for both battery and car manufacturing.
Feelin’ extra Musky this week with more updates from Tesla. In other news, Tesla has begun offering some customers lifetime insurance and maintenance at the time of purchase. This means that upon buying a Tesla, customers know exactly how much the car will cost them from then on. No monthly insurance bills. No repair costs.
Car insurance is undoubtedly in for a shift as autonomous vehicles become more commonplace. Musk, as always, is ahead of the game. Not sure when these features will rollout to all customers. He did explain that he will likely partner with existing insurance companies, but if necessary, Tesla will insource insurance solutions.
Waymo, the Alphabet-owned self-driving company, has filed suit against self-driving trucking company Otto, and its parent company, Uber.
Waymo claims that Otto and Uber have infringed upon its patents and copied its designs for its LiDAR sensors. According the the suit, Otto founder Anthony Levandowski downloaded 14,000 files from Waymo, where he was formerly a manager. Also in the suit, other former Waymo employees apparently downloaded trade secrets, including supplier lists.
UPS’s HorseFly UAV is an eight-rotor delivery drone that can carry up to 10lbs and fly autonomously for 30 minutes. It docks on the roof of an electric delivery vehicle and recharges while UPS drivers load packages onto the drone and set its flight path. This past week, UPS made its first successful delivery using the drone to a customer’s home in Florida.
UPS’s interest in drone delivery doesn’t come as a shock as it prepares for the impending competition with Amazon. The HorseFly and its predecessors will likely lower costs, particularly in rural locations where deliveries are more spread out. UPS says that simply reducing driving distance by 1 mile per day, each delivery driver could save the company up to $50 million in a year.
Ford announced that it ain’t got time for Level 3 autonomous. Level 3 is for big dumb babies. Instead, it’s investing its time and money into developing a Level 4 car.
What’s the difference? Level 3 includes automation but still requires humans to take over in certain conditions. Level 4 is more or less fully autonomous with a few exceptions in more extreme situations. The reason behind skipping Level 3: Level 3 is likely more dangerous because it gives humans a false sense of security- leaving them susceptible to slow reaction times in cases where they do need to step in.
Ford invested in Argo AI earlier this month to move towards their autonomous vehicle. Customers will be able to get into their Level 4 Ford without any skills at all. They barely need motor skills. Kind of like babies… Hmmm… so I guess Level 4 is actually for babies. (Did I take that joke too far? Vote now in the comments.)
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