Wanted: Cofounder for YC S19. Robotic Tunnel Delivery of Groceries/food/packages
I want to use modern tunneling tech like horizontal directional drilling and pipe-jacking to build networks of tunnels under major cities to allow high speed "just in time" deliveries using small autonomous vehicles.
Looking for someone with ability to move to SF in summer 2019 for YC (or another program).
I am: 36, ex medical doctor, have a decent amount of seed capital. Interested in small lithium vehicles, construction and the environment.
You: Happy to move to SF for YC (and probably even if YC app doesn't work out). Hardworking and ambitious and upbeat :). Any robotics or construction or civil engineering experience would be useful, but not essential. PR/public speaking/sales/communication abilities would be great too. Qualities matching those of the YC application would also be useful eg. cool projects you've worked on in the past.
contact@tuberelay.com
36 comments
[ 0.22 ms ] story [ 71.4 ms ] threadSelf-driving footpath size delivery vehicles - people won't tolerate anything going faster than 10km/hr on sidewalks and that + crossing roads makes it too slow. In addition, at any reasonable volume and covering longer distances eg. 5km trips across a city these would end up blocking footpaths eg. if grocery delivery sized drones were working in any sort of numbers.
Self-driving delivery cars - could work, but to replace all current package/grocery/food deliveries would involve a huge fleet of cars, or carrying multiple deliveries per car which makes them laggy - not good for takeaway food or packages where a person needs to go to a sidewalk to meet the delivery vehicle.
The idea is that delivery drones in tubes can travel at high speeds - faster than cars (50+km/h with few/no stops), can be centrally controlled to cooperate well on limited bandwidth routes, and will end up being able to be routed like internet traffic. being able to arrive "just in time" will make them ideal for sidewalk pickup by the end customer.
Although highly capital intensive, I think that a well-planned network like this would allow efficiency and competition the likes of which have never been seen before in delivery of groceries, packages and takeaways. Imagine the ability for ANYONE in the city surrounds to compete on grocery prices, not just the large supermarkets on high value real estate. "Last mile" delivery costs are more than half of total courier costs - imagine if these were reduced to near zero.
Assuming each person in a city has:
- a postal/courier package delivered every 2 days
- a grocery delivery every 3 days
- a takeaway/food delivery every 4 days
This means on average overall each person gets 1 delivery per day. Assuming delivery cost of $2 per delivery, this means in a city of 1 million people there is $2 million daily revenue for operators of this, or $700 million per year. At a cost of capital of 5%, this would allow up to $14 billion dollars to construct this network in a city of 1 million people. At an average $4 delivery cost there would be up to $28 billion available.
At least in the short term, a good bet would be funneling stock to retail stores. In lots of neighborhoods, big trucks parked on narrow streets to offload cargo is a big problem.
Packages, grocery, and food bring different requirements in terms of delivery speed and size, which could lead to different solutions--some easier to address than others. What is the pain point and most desperate customers for each?
- expensive to bore out
- cannot be changed
- expensive to maintain
Above ground pipes would allow for easier maintenance and a much cheaper roll-out. Crazy but could be worth looking into existing infrastructure like power cable routes etc..
https://www.boringcompany.com/products/ (Conduit Tunnel)
Chicago still has its old delivery tunnel network beneath downtown. It’s not in great shape. The Palmer House Hilton uses its section to grow mushrooms for its restaurant.
My father used to talk about delivery networks beneath Manhattan that he used. But I think those may have been pneumatic.
In Chicago, AT&T got a deal to put small cell towers in places they wouldn't ordinarily be allowed in exchange for building the Office of Emergency Management and Communications a private wireless data network.
In the subways, there was some kind of deal struck with the wireless companies, as well. I don't remember exactly how it worked but it was something like Brand X gets 2-year exclusive on wireless service in the subways if it builds the infrastructure that everyone else can piggyback on later.
It was slightly comical years later when a dozen cities around the world were touting how awesome it was that they were "first" to have wireless service in their subways, while people in Chicago had already been living with the scourge of loud people Facetiming other nobodies about absolutely nothing for everyone to hear. The screeching of the L wheels is preferable.
(or already lives in SF / Bay Area, I thought it was weird that you wrote this twice, I wonder if there is a preconception about people that already live in SF undertoning this, like already busy or already moved for some other 'change the world' trope)
- tunnelling tech has come a long way - pipejacking means you can install hundreds of metres of pipes from a single hole without digging a trench. Horizontal direct drilling means the chinese can put a 600mm diameter pipe spanning 3kms under the yangtze river from a single access point.
- lithium batteries and vehicle routing tech means that small delivery vehicles can do their jobs at incredible speed and efficiency.
1) What is the size of the pipes you are considering? Will it be big enough for humans to get into for maintenance - I was thinking what would happen if a delivery vehicle breaks down or a small animal gets into a tunnel.
2) Have you considered small blimps as delivery vehicles? The technology has got considerably better and should be less noisy than drones.
2) helium blimps lift 1 gram per litre of helium, so to lift 10kg of groceries they would need a 10 cubic meter blimp or a 2.7 meter diameter sphere - seems big and difficult to control especially in winds.
https://www.google.com/search?q=person+in+a+torpedo+tube&tbm...
Thanks :)
Also, another big issue is permitting. Which govt bodies would have to issue a permit to allow underground tunnels? Eg. I if I want to build some tunnels under Palo Alto, who has to approve it?