[Imc-makerspace] Fwd: [freeside] Bay Area Startup Wants to Deliver Tacos Via Unmanned Quadcopter (Maybe)

[Stewart Dickson]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	[freeside] Bay Area Startup Wants to Deliver Tacos Via 
Unmanned Quadcopter (Maybe)
Date: 	Mon, 26 Mar 2012 18:46:40 +0000
From: 	Curbob <curbob at gmail.com>
To: 	Freeside Atlanta <freesideatlanta at googlegroups.com>



      Sent to you by Curbob via Google Reader:


    Bay Area Startup Wants to Deliver Tacos Via Unmanned Quadcopter
    (Maybe)
    <http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-03/bay-area-startup-wants-deliver-tacos-unmanned-quadcopter-drone-maybe>

via Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now 
<http://www.popsci.com> by Clay Dillow on 3/26/12

*TacoCopter.com* //
Hoaxes involving Cal-Mex are twice as cruel

It's the kind of tech startup that we could really get excited about if 
we weren't fairly certain it's some kind of hoax. A Web site has popped 
up at TacoCopter.com <http://tacocopter.com/> that offers a unique 
service: tacos airlifted directly to your doorstep via unmanned 
quadcopter drone. The rise of the machines never sounded so scrumptious.

Here's the idea as outlined on TacoCopter.com: customers download a 
smartphone app, which allows them to order tacos to a specific location. 
The tacos then arrive via flying quadcopter. Tipping your delivery drone 
is presumably optional. That's it. It's so brilliant, we can't believe 
the kids down at the GRASP Lab 
<http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-03/video-grasp-lab-quadcopters-jam-out-james-bond-theme> 
haven't already cornered the market on this.

But all may not be as it seems. The TacoCopter.com site says the service 
is in private beta (you can request an invite) in the San Francisco Bay 
area, and Digital Trends 
<http://www.digitaltrends.com/lifestyle/tacocopter-to-use-flying-drones-to-deliver-your-tacos-possibly/> 
notes that the domain is registered to one Star Simpson, whose claim to 
Internet fame 
<http://boingboing.net/2007/09/21/mit-student-arrested.html> was having 
a homemade LED shirt mistaken for a bomb at Boston Logan International 
some years back. The charges stemming from that incident were 
"possession of a hoax device."

So is TacoCopter.com simply another hoax? The thing is, Simpson is of 
MIT origins, a self-proclaimed inventor, artist, and engineer. That's 
somewhat annoying, since we don't know which hat she might be donning as 
the human intelligence behind TacoCopter.com. For now, we're assuming 
that we're going to have to continue getting our tacos the old-fashioned 
way (or in our case, being an NYC-based operation, our lobster 
rolls--the Web site teases East Coasters with the promise of 
"LobsterCopter," the "Taco of the East!")

But if there's a more important takeaway here--even more important than 
the tantalizing possibility of air-dropped carnitas--it's that this sort 
of thing is less far-fetched than it might seem. The FAA is opening up 
the national airspace to drones 
<http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-02/under-newly-authorized-airspace-rules-drones-will-fly-alongside-piloted-planes-2015> 
over the next few years. By the end of 2015, all kinds of unmanned 
systems will have access to the skies. The potential for quadcopter 
couriers and other robotic, semi-autonomous or autonomous transport 
grows more real by the day. If the future really is filled with 
self-driving cars and autonomous aerial drones, then it's fair to say 
that the delicious on-demand Cali-Mex experience of the future could 
very well have a robotic aspect to it.

While we breathlessly await that future, we invite any Bay area readers 
who want to investigate to let us know how it goes. The comments section 
below, as always, is all yours.

[Digital Trends 
<http://www.digitaltrends.com/lifestyle/tacocopter-to-use-flying-drones-to-deliver-your-tacos-possibly/>]


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