PIZZA DELIVERY WITH UNMANNED DRONES

In the summer of 2013, a Domino's franchise in the United Kingdom posted a video showing an unmanned drone delivering pizzas in the company's Heatwave bags. Was this genuine product testing by Domino's of a novel way of getting takeaway food to customers or merely a stunt by Domino's to raise its profile? The widespread use of such drones, though, raises questions. Some are of safety: every extra craft in the air adds to the risk of a crash or collision. Others are of privacy: are people's activities to be monitored continuously when they are outdoors, even when they are on their own private property?

In some countries, most notably the United States, a major hurdle for getting drones into the air is hampered by the fact that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) does not currently allow drones for commercial use in US airspace. Because of its early stage of technology development and current US flight restrictions, UPS and FedEx may be at a disadvantage. If courier companies like SF Express can make significant inroads in development and implementation of package-delivering drones, then parcels-via-drone suddenly becomes much closer to reality, at least for smaller package transportation. Whilst the SF Express drones are being developed with the intention of reaching difficult-to-get-to remote areas, it is hard not to imagine the potential benefits of having drone 'deliverymen'. They can reach remote locations where there are no roads. They can be pre-programmed with destination coordinates and can, effectively, fly in a straight line. This would cut down on fuel costs associated with delivery. Why send a truck that takes fuel when you could send a drone and then simply recharge the battery? Police forces around the world are also keen to lay their hands on small pilotless aircraft to help them catch fleeing criminals and monitor crime scenes from above. With price tags of a little more (and, in some cases, a good deal less) than the 30,000 of a police patrol car, a new generation of micro-unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is being recruited to replace police helicopters costing 1.5 million and up. It is possible to imagine standing out on your front porch, morning coffee in hand, looking up and watching as a whole buzzing network of drones go about their business catching criminals, delivering goods . . . and pizzas. Welcome to the world of drone technology.

Potential innovation hurdles from regulators

Technology development and innovation does not occur in isolation and some industries are very heavily regulated. Drones may be too. In Australia, it is legal to use drones for commercial purposes, but that is not the case in the USA, where the Federal Aviation Authority will not release rules for commercial drones until 2016. Laws on the use of drones vary from country to country. In Canada, for instance, companies looking to operate an unmanned aircraft for commercial reasons are required to obtain a special government-issued certificate for each flight taken. Small unmanned aircraft are allowed as long as they are operated by an individual for recreational purposes only. In the UK, where the Domino's pizza project was born, there are currently at least 130 groups or companies licensed to use drones in the country's airspace.

Current drones depend on two-way satellite communications. If this data link is broken, the remote pilot will lose direct control of the aircraft, which then has to rely on pre-loaded software and GPS guidance. For routine missions that may be all right, but for missions requiring constant oversight, the vulnerability to electronic jamming or a direct attack on a communications satellite is an Achilles heel. Data links can also go down without help from an enemy. Another problem is that drones have not been cleared to share civil airspace over the USA and Europe by air-traffic controllers. The Federal Aviation Authority began trials in 2010, but it will not be easy to dispel fears that, if a pilot were temporarily to lose control of a drone, it might smash into a passenger airliner in shared airspace. One technical point is how a UAV should respond if it loses its communications link with the operator on the ground. Should it return automatically to some pre-assigned GPS location, or head for the nearest open space? Should it have a parachute arrangement - like an increasing number of private planes - to lower it gently to the ground in an emergency, or should it put itself immediately into a stall? Plenty of practical solutions exist for such problems. The issue is cost. A bigger stumbling block is how UAVs should detect, sense and avoid other aircraft operating in the same airspace. Drones piloted remotely by operators on the ground cannot see other aircraft in the sky in the way that human pilots can. So, whilst drones may appear to be cheap, making them safe raises the cost which is the key part of the innovation jigsaw. Surprisingly, the missing piece of the jigsaw may be available in Mexico.

Mexico may provide the US drone industry with a low cost advantage

Over the years, the maquiladoras have already lost much basic work, such as stitching together fabrics to cheaper places in Asia, like Bangladesh. But, more recently, rising pay in Chinese factories has made Mexico look an attractive location once more. Once shuttered off by tariffs and trade controls, Mexico has opened up to become a place where the world does business. The North American Free-Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which in 1994 eliminated most tariffs between Mexico, the United States and Canada, was only the beginning: Mexico now boasts free-trade deals with 44 countries, more than any other nation. In northern and central Mexico, German companies turn out electrical components for Europe, Canadian firms assemble aircraft parts and factory after factory makes televisions, fridge-freezers and much else. Each year, Mexico exports manufactured goods to about the same value as the rest of Latin America put together. Hauling goods from Asia to the United States is costlier, too. The price of oil has trebled since the start of the century, making it more attractive to manufacture close to markets. A container can take three months to travel from China to the United States, whereas products trucked in from Mexico can take just a couple of days. When one considers the joint effect of pay, logistics and currency fluctuations, Mexico is now one of the world's cheapest places to manufacture goods destined for the United States, undercutting China as well as countries such as India and Vietnam.

(Adapted from,Trott, Paul. "Pizza Delivery With Unmanned Drones" Innovation

Management and New Product Development. Pearson, 2017, pp. 75-81.)

Question 1

What would be the possible benefits of having drone deliverymen?

(3 marks)

Question 2

In this case, some countries are having different kind of perspective in regulating the drone technology. Highlight the differences between Australia, USA, Canada, and UK.

(6 marks)

Question 3

Discuss why USA's Federal Aviation Authority is so reluctant in releasing the rules for commercial drones.

(11 marks)