Mercedes takes on Amazon Prime Air with this drone mothership
Mercedes has just revealed a van that might change how we think about deliveries forever. As well as using old-fashioned humans, the Mercedes Vision van uses a crack team of delivery robots alongside a swarm of parcel drones – and the van acts as a landing pad, battery station and cargo storage for both. It may sound like something from a Philip K. Dick novel, but it actually solves some niggling problems with our current system of human-led deliveries.
A drone and robot mothership
The Mercedes’ Vision van was developed in association with drone startup Matternet, and the idea behind it is pretty simple. It’s basically an autonomous delivery system that uses a team of drones and robots to deliver lighter packages, but needs a human driver for bulkier items.
The van’s Matternet M2 drones use robotic shelving and cargo scanning technology to quickly find the package to be loaded onto the drone. The system then uses GPS and a glorified sat nav to calculate the fastest route for delivery.
Mercedes has just revealed a van that might change how we think about deliveries forever. As well as using old-fashioned humans, the Mercedes Vision van uses a crack team of delivery robots alongside a swarm of parcel drones – and the van acts as a landing pad, battery station and cargo storage for both. It may sound like something from a Philip K. Dick novel, but it actually solves some niggling problems with our current system of human-led deliveries.
A drone and robot mothership
The Mercedes’ Vision van was developed in association with drone startup Matternet, and the idea behind it is pretty simple. It’s basically an autonomous delivery system that uses a team of drones and robots to deliver lighter packages, but needs a human driver for bulkier items.
The van’s Matternet M2 drones use robotic shelving and cargo scanning technology to quickly find the package to be loaded onto the drone. The system then uses GPS and a glorified sat nav to calculate the fastest route for delivery.
What’s more, the M2 could deliver packages from a retailer’s warehouse to a van, where they can be collected. Mercedes also wants the software compatible with a mobile app, and that means customers could order their packages, and receive them in a ridiculously short amount of time.
So how does it compare to the Amazon Prime Air? Although the Vision van is nothing more than a concept right now, it actually has some serious potential. The main difference is that it can be used in many different ways; from a collection point to an automated delivery system.
By combining drones and vans, the Mercedes system is able to cut down flight times too, reducing airborne congestion. Given that Mercedes plans to sink €500m into the initiative over the next 5 years, signs are good that this is a serious plan which could just change the world of deliveries.
