We are engineers and operators from Zipline, the world’s only drone delivery service making lifesaving deliveries across Rwanda and Ghana. In the last 7 days, our drones flew over 42,000 km, making 525 deliveries. As us anything!

What you guys are doing is incredible, and super interesting! For my question:

What are the things that most commonly go wrong? And how do you try to prevent that from happening?

I am happy to answer what can go wrong from the software-side of things. For an airplane, basically everything has to go right for it to stay in the air. We've had to teach the planes how to detect when something is wrong and failover to backup systems. A few examples:

• We have two motors but only typically fly on one. We need to detect when that one has failed, shut it down, and spin up the other.
• Weather can be super challenging. We have no idea what we're going to face when we fly over the horizon. We've had to design our planes to be stronger and more responsive to fight through the harshest storms. We even account for weather in the design of our flight paths.

What else can go wrong? Basically every component (sensor, motor, control surface, computer, cable) can fail. From software's point of view simply accept this reality and make sure we have complete fault tolerance. We do tons of testing to prove our planes can detect when a component has failed, and make sure they respond accordingly.

For example, at our test sites here in California, we inject faults into real planes as they fly. We'll cut power to one of the computers, short out a communications bus, or unplug the GPS. The plane has redundant computers, comms channels, and GPS, so it can keep flying through these failures.

Hi guys, my name is Dr Karl Blanchet. I am the Director of the Health in Humanitarian Crises at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. I am a big fan of Zipline and have followed your achievements for the last few years. I would like to be able to document the impact you have in terms of timing, costs and lives saves. How much do you embed research into your projects?

Hey Dr. Blanchet, thanks for the kind words. Can you elaborate what you mean by "embed research into your projects"? From a technical point of view, practically every part of our system is built on the last decade of robotics research and silicone research. From a product point of view, our efforts were actually inspired by the works of a public health researcher in Tanzania who distributed cell phones to rural clinics. This research showed it was very easy to collect real-time info on what medicines were needed, and where they were needed. It also shined a light on how many of these needed medicines were just not acquired in time.

I meant to document the public health impact of Zipline. This would help all of us, public health experts use and diffuse this kind of innovation.

Ah yes. This is something we're definitely investing in!

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Edit - folks were asking for more clarity. We haven't concluded any studies yet, but we are actively investing in both our own and independent studies that measure our impact. We will share when we know more!

Perhaps a tad specific, but what sorts of skills are you looking for when hiring robotics / autonomous systems software engineers? Love the social impact you all are making.

Hey Mikey, we're hiring robotics software engineers who are excited to bring robotic technologies to the real world. This ranges from path planning to decision making to perception. Skills: super strong software engineer, great communicator, experience shipping products, strong robotics fundamentals, passion for doing good in the world.

Are you willing to allow mostly full time remote work for an experienced robotics software engineer?

We're currently only hiring for folks excited to work from our Bay Area HQ most days of the week.

How is it funded? Is it a charitable thing, or does the Rwandan goverment pay for it?

After their most recent money raise they’re valued at over $1 billion.

I’m still confused about who is paying.

The Gov't of Ghana and Rwanda

How can your drones fly so far (80km mentioned elsewhere) when most drones make it 2-3km max?

Wings! We don't fly like a helicopter, but instead like an airplane. This makes our planes light and very efficient, and capable of flying at very high speeds and through very strong winds.

• Rumor has it that Zipline might start operations in Asia, how soon is that going to happen?

• Ive also heard that Zipline drones can also transport other types of medical supplies (other than blood). What are they? And does the current drone design limit you in any way when it comes to certain types of supplies that you can deliver?

• Zipline in Asia: definitely gonna happen soon! We have plans to launch on all continents (well, not Antarctica anytime soon). The problems we solve affect all of humanity. We don't have any news yet on where our first operations in Asia will be, but we're working our butts off to make it a reality as fast as we can.

How does a company like this move from a project, to actually doing deliveries and working with governments? I imagine making the actual basic delivery is the easy part (not to take away from the amazing work you guys have done with route planning, the redundancy, how you can assemble everything with just a Phillips screwdriver, the consistency of the system is so impressive), but how do you move that to working with governments, different companies, and actually start making a difference in the world? As an engineer I'd love to do all these things but at the end of the day a project is just a project, the business strategy, development and overall relationships you have to build is still a very gray area for me.

Excellent question! This is something we obsess over. We just got out there and started flying with our first partner, the government of Rwanda, to see what was possible. We learned a ton and just worked really hard and really smart to make the system better each day. Over five years, it has gotten to the point where we are easily the most reliable drone out there.

I guess my question was more about how do you get, in your example, the government of rwanda to be your partner. Is it just connections and talking with people until you can get a ball rolling somewhere?

Ah. We found folks in the government who were as excited as we are about solving this problem!

How did it all start and what was the biggest obstacle you faced during implementation? Thanks.

One really big literal obstacle was this mountain range in Rwanda. It took us over a year to learn to fly over and around it before we could start service to the hospitals on the other side.

That's one steep mountain range. It must've been one good challenge to overcome. I assume it took some changes to your aircraft design.

We both significantly redesigned the aircraft and built an automated path planner to find the optimal route, balancing the cost of climbing up and over, versus flying around.

If you look closely, you can see it decides to do a bit of both: go around and over the side of the mountain range: https://imgur.com/a/8JIexSq

Can't imagine all the inputs you need to take into account even before path selection. Wind direction and speed, battery consumption, GPS accuracy, weight management. Kudos to you all guys/gals!

Population density, keep-out-zones, terrain, ...!

How Zipline started: we were experienced in building robots but tired of building things people didn't need. We had family in public health who hinted at these problems. As we learned more about how much of the globe lacked access to medical products, we became hooked. The problem of knowing what is needed, where, was already solved with mobile phones, which have become ubiquitous in the last decade. But how to get supplies to those locations was a much harder problem. Something we thought we could solve!

What you're doing is incredible. I'm also glad that you're showing how engineering can help people. Awesome.

Thanks u/itopaloglu83!

biggest obstacle

Ooh, that's tough! We've had many challenges. There's a constant battle between scaling faster vs. being ready to scale faster. We'd love to roll out Zipline to 100x more facilities and countries overnight, but when the system was still in its infancy, we knew that the burden of scaling too fast would have paralyzed us.

This is very impressive, well done!

On average, how many deliveries do you make a day? How do you control the payload temperature during hot days? What's the current delivery failure rate?

Deliveries per day: We're scaling our distribution centers to over 150 deliveries per day. We're about halfway there today, and closing in fast. We're achieving this by serving both more clinics and providing more medical products.

Flying island to island seems like a good use e.g Philippines. Are you concerned about flying over water because if you lose a drone it will not likely be recovered or are you working on a float system with a beacon?

Flying over water will certainly have its challenges! We think we can make the system reliable enough that this doesn't ever become a big issue.

I learned about your work from the Wendover Productions video and I was really impressed. I love seeing how technology can facilitate the delivery of effective healthcare. What do you think is the next technology that can improve your systems and logistics? Keep up the good work!

There are so many technologies improving so fast that make our mission more and more achievable!

Let's look at the amount that GPS is improving, for example. When we started Zipline, there were no affordable, small, and low power GPS receivers with RTK (RTK is a tech that gives super-accurate position so we can land on that wire). Today, there are many good options and prices are still falling fast, while capability and reliability grow.

Similar improvements in batteries, materials, processing, and AI/machine-learning will make the tech continue to improve.

Another huge boost for our business is how quickly the world's population is becoming educated in technology fields. We have a young, growing talent pool to power our operations!

How do you handle pirates? I feel like that would be an actual issue.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tpCLL0lgKGU/Tx-_iE6FJVI/AAAAAAAAAGg/_PNxXttR4Pw/s640/2z6ts9e.jpg

My take is that the Zips aren’t particularly susceptible to piracy. They accelerate to 100 km/h in less than half a second at launch, they are small, they only loosely follow flight paths due to autonomous flight planning, and they don’t have any set schedule. I’m not sure how I’d attempt to intercept one short of taking a station but that’s next level.

Exactly. We never land anywhere but at our own distribution center. And in flight, we are moving very fast and we're typically quite high up. You wouldn't even notice one fly by unless you were looking for it. (And yes, they are that quiet!)

What is the heaviest load you’ve delivered?

We deliver up to about 1.6 kg (3.5 lbs). Some of the largest orders have required 6 or 7 drones, dropping back-to-back, but that is pretty rare.

I want to say thank you for posting the "Dream Job" on your website. That seems like such a great way to expand your mission in ways you didn't think of before. It shows humility and an openness to new ideas, which I value. I think I'll put in an application.

I'm curious, where did that idea come from?

We have many people who are just super passionate and want to be involved in any way they can!

What does it feel to work there? Also how many african staff members do you have?

I've had the opportunity to spend a few months working from the distribution center in Rwanda. It is simply life-changing! Such an awe-inspiring environment.

How do you feel about Real Engineering's video on the Rwanda project? Are there any inaccuracies you'd like to correct or things you'd like to add?

I was lucky to show Brian around. He did a great job! I don't think there were any inaccuracies at the time, but we're also a fast moving company, so many of the specs have fallen out of date.

We should do an update video in a year or two! - Brian

https://www.aveleyman.com/Gallery/Titles/t354.jpg

Awesome mission and you guys are definitely helping make the world the a better place!

But I have to ask what is the business model that makes this possible? Does this change in short time and long time time frames? Mainly how can you guys afford to play staff and buy equipment currently?

Thanks u/sdenkovski. Really good question.

For starters, Zipline is a for-profit enterprise. We solve healthcare issues at a national scale: we fully eliminate stock-outs (running out of medicine in clinics and hospitals) and we fully eliminate waste (we store products centrally and only distribute perishable medical supplies when they are needed). This is very valuable and saves a country a ton of money. We're able to charge a price that is comparable to what they used to pay for motorcycles and trucks, but we offer a 10x solution in terms of quality of service!

We've also designed every part of the system in-house: the drones, the launchers, the distribution center, the operations, etc. We have iterated for 5 years now and have significantly reduced our costs of operation.

Plus, we've been able to make Zipline more and more reliable. This makes our system safe and it requires less maintenance to keep running!

u/zipline_ethan can chime in on how we've achieved a lot of these cost reductions through clever engineering.

A friend working in drones in the region for a large donor agency asked "why do liquid blood with drones when nearby human beings are walking blood banks?" Can't blood testing and extraction kits be sent to locations more inexpensively through traditional means? He alluded to potential political reasons, meaning that politicians can comprehend drone blood deliveries and you need to get their buy in before you can build out other uses. If this is an AMA, how politically motivated is the blood use case for building out other cases, or does blood delivery stand on its own economic merits? Thanks and keep up the great work!

Hey u/Squirkelspork. Really interesting idea! I'm no expert in the machines used for blood typing, testing, and transfusing, but I do know they cost a ton today and rely on power grids and skilled technicians that simply don't exist in most places.

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As for political motivation: we're pretty transparent about what we're doing. We think technology shouldn't only benefit the richest billion humans. We also think the thing developing countries need most is industry. By leveraging the latest in technology, we think there's a sweet-spot to help grow economies and do plenty of good.

What internet based services aren't available to you? Without a VPN, what have you not been able to use/or have had difficulty using as a consequence of your location?

ie. Using payment processors, etc..

From my experience in Rwanda, the cell network worked better than it does for me here in California!

You guys hiring any aerospace engineers over there at half moon bay? I'm local. :)

We do indeed! Some of the best aerospace engineers, right in your backyard

Have you thought at all about data deliveries? Basically, using the drone to relay information for telemedicine purposes.

No - tell me more!

Dope! Living in a rural and underdeveloped country, I love the idea BUT being skeptical now, will people neglect the long term benefit for the short term and just steal these drones? Is there a security system which prevents this?

The drones never land anywhere except at our distribution center! They drop packages from the sky!

Would it be feasible to make a cargo container sized facility that automatically loads and deploys drones?

That was our original design goal. It turned out minimizing the footprint that had many technical challenges we didn't want to have to tackle to start solving real problems.

Hi there! My question is how do you decide where to build your depots/ launch locations? What factors impact the decision making?

I am a PhD student researching optimal delivery by drone warehouse locations in urban environments but rural is where it is now, it would be amazing to hear your thoughts to your decision making. Thank you!

Once we have a partner country, we work with them and use a mix of data to inform where will have most impact, combined with local knowledge to know where will be most successful, accounting for where has good, reliable utilities, good roads, and easy access to our distribution center.

I recently saw that Zipline is valued at over $1 billion. What are your future plans to justify that valuation?

Honestly, your business model is brilliant. You’ve made it your mission to help those that are incredibly disadvantaged, while also utilizing that mission to develop an exceptionally lucrative commercial product.

We've built a strong team that knows how to solve seemingly impossible problems in scrappy ways. We're already showing what massive impact our tech can have and we have a goal of serving 1% of the world's population before the end of this year. 10% in a decade. This is a huge market and no one else has a solution even half as good for getting medicines where they need to be, fast.

Cool project, I imagine this being something that would also be very useful in the Pacific Islands, do you fly over large bodies of water?

Today, we fly over rivers and lakes, but not open seas yet. We are well aware of the problems many island nations face and they are not being ignored!

Could you please fly a drone to california?

We fly daily in California. Hundreds of flights!

First of all really really good work, I am very impressed.

Who pays you and will there be any shares open to the public soon? I couldn’t find much info on that. :)

We are paid by our government and private partners. We are not (yet!) publicly traded, but strive to be someday.

Why the world's only drone delivery service named "Zipline"?

Direct delivery through the air from point-A to point-B.

u/zipline_ethan “nerds out on coffee” and works in Rwanda?

Not to put you on the spot or anything, but what’s in gracing your coffee cup these days? What’s the best coffee you’ve had?

Also, more work related. What’s the payload limit per delivery and what’s your maximum delivery range while at max load?

Ethan lives here in the Bay Area. Nickson lives in Rwanda. I'll let them both comment on their caffeine preferences...

Are you taking resumes?

Hey u/bezoric. We are hiring for many different roles in a bunch of geographies. You can see those openings here: flyzipline.com/careers

Zipline is doing great things for developing countries. But the UAV technology and autonomous network you are developing could be useful in many other disciplines.

Have you thought of using Zipline for package delivery or search and rescue in disaster zones?

Thanks!

We believe what has gotten us this far is sharp focus and ruthless prioritization. We could do any and all of those things, but they're not what drives us. Startups need to be really good at avoiding distractions to survive!

Has the engineering department figured out the letter K yet?

I'm gonna blame that one on my MacBookk's broen eyboard. :)

What type of RX/TX antennas, frequency range, and transmit power is used for the zip? Is frequency/power an issue for deploying this technology to other countries?

We only use unlicensed band for transmission.

Really love what you guys have decided to make! I have a few questions: - Why Rwanda and Ghana over any other places? - I'm actually curious about how your business model works. Do you work with a subscription model of the hospitals and places you deliver too? Are you financed directly by the government as a public service? I'd be really curious to know. - In the continuity of the previous question, do you work with NGOs? Have you for example ever been called upon in cases of natural disasters, when flooding for example would prevent traditional means of traveling deportation to reach a specific location? (I also saw Bill Gates tweet about you guys recently, do you have support from his foundation?) If not, is it something you would consider? (Both NGOs and working during natural disasters)

That's already quite a few questions, so I'll stop there (for now?) Again, you guys are pretty inspiring!

I'm actually curious about how your business model works

Our primary customer is the nation's ministry of health. Most of the developing world uses single-payer healthcare systems, so we serve public facilities. For this, yeah: the simple way to think about it is a subscription, where we solve big national-scale problems at an affordable price.

There is definitely demand for both private facilities and pharmacies, and in markets like the US where healthcare is, well, complicated.

Why Rwanda and Ghana? They are simply the first of what we hope to be a global trend. Both Rwanda and Ghana have proven that they can move fast, take bets on technology, and have been excellent partners every step of the way!

Super impressed with your operations but also in how you guys are handling this IAMA!

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For my questions:

• What does a failure rate in your operations look like? %failure in drones returning to the center successfully? %failure in deliveries? Curious as to the level of 'wastage' that is accepted.
  
• How long is the life of the current zip model from normal wear and tear?

How long is the life of the current zip model from normal wear and tear?

Thousands of flights

Do you have any plans to start operations in India? I have long been intrigued by drones and would love to be a part of this new industry. Have worked in the software industry for over 10 years. What would be the path forward to join your company remotely maybe? My webpage www.allthatido.com

We're not currently hiring remote software engineers in India, but that may change! Keep an eye on our jobs page over time: flyzipline.com/careers

I wanted to know: what are your ideas for the future of your company? We're you thinking of expanding Zipline to other countries, if so where?

We want to expand Zipline everywhere. For real! We don't have anything to share yet about which country will be _next_.

Are you hiring?

flyzipline.com/careers

^ What u/Optimizing_My_Life said!

What kind of batteries last for such long trips? Most only last about 15 minutes depending on the motors draw. I cant imagine being able to have such long distance trips on a drone!

Our drones look much more like airplanes than the multirotor drones you are picturing.

What kind of equipment do you use for your GCS? How do you maintain control of the planes for such distances? Do you use satellite relays for your control link?

We've built a custom communications stack. As I said somewhere else:

Our drones are designed to continue operating safely without any comms. That said, we do our best to stay in-touch using the cell network (which is surprisingly great in Ghana and Rwanda!) and a line-of-sight radio link.

Hey I am super interested in this and have been following you guys for a while. How can I get a job at your company? I graduate in December and would love to work for you guys.

Sure. When can you start? :)

Is there a long term goal that you guys are shooting for?

From our website: Our mission is to provide every human on Earth with instant access to vital medical supplies

Is it fiscally viable, more over, who pays the bills?

Hey u/Banicks. Zipline is a for-profit enterprise - we think building sustainable industry is what the developing world needs the most. We're cost-competitive with traditional ways of moving medicines, but we're 10x more effective. We like to call that a bargain!

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Autonomous Systems, Perception, Planning, Roboticist, Robotics Engineer, plus "Software" sprinkled in there.

It looks like you’ve tested for weather conditions and ecologies in the global south: hot, windy, rainy, or arid. Have you tested under other, more extreme conditions? For example have you tested under the conditions of extreme cold where there might be interference with batteries?

We're actively testing cold conditions too.

When do you think drone delivery will become mainstream?

Today, if you adjust your definition of "mainstream"!

How do you maintain C2C over such long distances? What procedures does the drone have if you lose contact? Super cool project, going to follow your progress over the next few years!

Our drones are designed to continue operating safely without any comms. That said, we do our best to stay in-touch using the cell network (which is surprisingly great in Ghana and Rwanda!) and a line-of-sight radio link.

For something hopefully completely different, what drone would you be recommending to beginners? For recreational, and for people who are trying to get in to non-recreational drone operation? And why?

Let me ask my team. I haven't kept up to date on hobby drones!

107 operator here. Is the drone industry expected to be hit by the same pilot shortages airlines are having? Do you even have pilots?

The requirements, responsibilities, and career path for drone pilots are so different than commercial aviation pilots. I can't imagine these two careers are going to be very coupled in their trajectories.

We have a single pilot which oversees a fleet of drones, flying across the entire region, in live communications with Air Traffic Control.

Clearly you are doing much more important work in Africa at the moment, but do you have any plans to scale and offer your solution in the States?

Yes

How many lives have you saved? What kind of medicine do you deliver? Is there any danger or resistance involved?

We've helped doctors with over 15,000 deliveries that they might not have gotten in time. We deliver blood products (over 50 types), many vaccines, insulin, inhalers, etc. And we're adding hundreds more in the next few months.

Purely hypothetical, if I wanted to stage mass revolts in all the North Korean concentration camps by silently airdropping weapons into the prisoners sleeping quarters in the dead of night, would that be feasible and what would be the main technical hurdles?

I don't think weapons will improve anyone's situation. Violence only makes a nation's situation more dire.