Transit, UAVs, and You!

Welcome!

I am Tim Witten.  I work at the intersection of transit and technology, and I have a truly interesting idea.  :)

It involves transit buses and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).

I 've been thinking about this idea for quite a while and felt with the recent discussions about commercial use of UAVs, I needed to add my thoughts to the discussion. Amazon; UPS,


When I saw Jeff Bezos on 60 Minutes this past Sunday, I was intrigued and interested.

BUT the idea is not fully-formed yet.  Amazon has built a large part of their business on existing "public" infrastructure: the internet, the US postal service, the Interstate system, etc. 

So, why not build a UAV delivery model on preexisting public infrastructure- MOVING public infrastruture?

Go outside in major urban area and look around for a half hour.  I'll wait....

Did you see a transit bus? Did you hear a bus?  Look around tomorrow and you will see that buses are everywhere!  Now, imagine all these buses serving as UAV "Aircraft carriers."

The UAV leaves a pharmacy with your pills, flies to the nearest bus, lands in a "docking station," and stays on the bus until it reaches a stop near your house.  Then the UAV takes off, flies to your stoop, drops the package, and moves to the next assignment.

In this scenario we have extended the range of the UAV delivery system, found an additional use for existing public infrastructure, and created an alternative revenue stream for transit system.