Light Delivery

at

Westport, County Mayo.

Helen O’Dwyer writes:

Irish lighting company Solus demonstrated that they are light years ahead as they piloted the first ever retail drone delivery of light bulbs to a retail store.

Mark Kavanagh, Marketing Director of the Kavanagh Group joined David Reynolds, Sales and Marketing Director of Solus and Former Miss World Rosanna Davison to receive the delivery of Solus light bulbs to SuperValu in Westport…

…Solus piloted the drone delivery experiment in controlled conditions…The assignment contained 30 candle bulbs and arrived in perfect condition and ahead of schedule proving that even something as delicate as a ligh tbulb can be delivered by drone and perfectly intact.

Fight!

Solus

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28 thoughts on “Light Delivery

  1. Nialler

    And it looks like a DJI Phantom, flight time about 30 mins on a single charge, puported speed of 72km/h, where did they say they were delivering from again?

    1. Slightly Bemused

      Thanks. I was going to ask if this would be a useful thing for the offshore islands for small scale deliveries, but at that range, it would not be practical.

      1. martco

        that’s 30 mins with no payload

        a summertime story morkeshing gimmick to spark interest in the concept / Solus sales

        there’s a fair amount of law around drones now…
        yokes like the dji there are classed aircraft, technically piloted – albeit remotely – by law the pilot MUST maintain a visual line of sight at all times as the device goes from A–>B
        …and a heap of other stuff covering where you’re allowed to fly etc.

        there is flight planning & geofencing tech to force a drone to follow a specific flight plan + interract with the local ATC however I’m not aware of it being in the picture yet in this country…this remote delivery stuff is just practically not there at this time…unless there’s a fella in a van driving alongside the drone as it travels

        1. Slightly Bemused

          I was not aware of that restriction (line of sight), or the other ones. Thanks for the information, it is really useful. And very much rules out my thoughts of drone delivery to the islands :)

          1. martco

            yeah there’s proper law for it now

            SI563 contains all you need to know

            *I would also assume the pilot in this case was properly licenced + insured to carry out said commercial drone work. yeah. to undertake commercial drone work of that nature you also need to take an €800 course + pass an exam nowadays….plus that all important PI insuranc€.

            I also heard some interview/advertisement on the radio with one of the usual suspects recently around their imminent plans to deliver a platform for companies to undertake drone deliveries of takeaway food (sounded a little like nonsense to me but sure anyway)

  2. Spaghetti Hoop

    It’s odd that they chose lightbulbs to test this. A Big Mac meal or pizza would have been the ultimate test – given that they’re already almost cold when they serve it up.

        1. Spaghetti Hoop

          Tell us, oh fully-packed mind, how many people do you know would order a box of lightbulbs? And need them so urgently to warrant paying a drone delivery fee? This method is so much more befitting a delivery of something which is required quickly – like food or medicine. Test it with blood, organs, medicine, ballot papers and takeaway meals – not frigging lightbulbs. Comprende?

          1. Slightly Bemused

            Hey Hoop. I know that in some African countries (certainly Tanzania and Rwanda) they do deliver medicines (not sure about organs or blood) to remote clinics by drone. However, the drones used are fixed wing (not rotary like the one pictured) and larger.

          2. Spaghetti Hoop

            Good to know, thanks. Friend of mine delivers blood on a motorbike and it’s very stressful. Would love to see drones as the vehicle…but…well, HSE.

      1. Spaghetti Hoop

        Which are packed in surrounding card pouches to protect them from breakage. Plus are super light in weight. Delivering a hot meal would be far more challenging.

          1. Spaghetti Hoop

            Yes I know that Term, and my point is that lightbulbs do not suit a drone delivery experiment – because bulbs are not an item which demands a speedy and most personalised delivery service such as this and because, well, why?. There’s a Dublin-based entrepreneur called Bobby Healy (I was at a talk he delivered this year), who plans to deliver burgers by drone in 2020. It’s a workable idea if he solves the temperature thing. I don’t see how delivering lightbulbs makes any money – and its only going from one warehouse to another. Rosanna could do with a burger in fairness – not a box of lightbulbs as His Holiness the Brother rightly pointed out here.

          2. Brother Barnabas

            I don’t think temperature will be the biggest challenge

            two words for you: sea gulls

  3. Jeffrey

    This isn’t gonna happen anytime soon – can you imagine the problems with unmanned delivery devices passing above streets, people’s garden, etc… its non sense. But let me order a Slingshot, just in case…

  4. Mart

    In the GPO they have a drone that An Post used to deliver post to I think one of the Aran Islands. I have no more details than this, apologies for the lack of information. But if you’re passing the GPO go in and take a look!!

    1. Slightly Bemused

      Ah, somebody thought of it before me. There goes my plan to be an inventor or innovator :(

  5. Dhaughton99

    Boss bought himself a toy and wants to show it off to the other kids. Nothing more. And Rosanna would never refuse a free dinner.

    1. Brother Barnabas

      she does seem to accept any gig going, doesn’t she?

      sure it’ll be grand once the folks sell the house

  6. Riz

    Haha the sellotape on the feet of the drone. This is just a cheesy PR move. Where was the ‘pilot’ – what kind or tracking did they use. I’ll tell you what kind of tracking, a fella in a car with a remote control while his colleague drove after the yoke.

  7. Scundered

    We’ve already got delivery services that don’t annoy the crap out of people with a high pitched noise, come back to us in another twenty years.

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