zipline_ryan

http://www.reddit.com/user/zipline_ryan

Highest Rated Comments

zipline_ryan592 karma

Not abandoned, just hasn't happened yet! We've got more demand than we can keep up with, but our mission is to bring this tech to the entire planet.

Costa Rica is a really special country. I got to spend a few weeks there when we were researching this partnership. The govt's focus on the environment and on universal healthcare aligns super closely with Zipline's values. So I'm hoping this happens soon too!

And thank you for the kind words.

zipline_ryan426 karma

It's been fun seeing you all try to reverse engineer and recreate it! Like our propellers, I need to be whisper quiet on all the details for now 🙉

The only way to get in on the secrets is by joining our team!

zipline_ryan385 karma

I do think it's a really cool idea and it seems feasible (but hard!). We've got enough on our plates to keep us busy for a decade! But maybe 2030! 😉

zipline_ryan380 karma

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.

zipline_ryan287 karma

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.