Michael Moynihan: Drone deliveries could land in Cork — but at what cost to jobs, privacy, and peace of mind?
West Dublin is set to see Manna drones overhead soon as they deliver food for Deliveroo. Will this be the next thing for Cork? File photo: REUTERS/Jason Cairnduff
Is it time for The Ride of the Valkyries? Crank the speaker way past 10, open the windows, and listen to the soundtrack of our doom as it approaches?
Fans of will recall the famous helicopter sequence from that movie, when Robert Duvall leads an attack on a seaside village to the strains of Wagner because it “scares the hell” out of the enemy.
Well, the time for this stirring theme may have come again. News drifts south to us of the skies being crowded above the capital, a sight which may soon be replicated here.
Jennifer Duggan reported in these pages last week that: “Deliveroo has launched an autonomous drone food delivery service in Dublin in partnership with Irish firm Manna Drones.
“As part of the partnership, Deliveroo customers in some areas of the suburbs of west Dublin will have the option to have their order delivered by drone, the company said Thursday. It will conduct a test phase in the coming weeks to assess how the drones can help serve suburban locations.”
Hm. On we go with the traditional corporate boilerplate from the companies involved . . . Europe . . . America . . . excited to see . . . the usual guff, then: “The company is also planning to expand its operations in Ireland to include Cork and other cities in the coming months.
“Initially, the Deliveroo service will cover a three-kilometre radius in Dublin 15 and drone delivery will be presented as an option on the app for customers. Delivery times are estimated to be as low as three minutes.”
A stream of drones swooping in over Blackpool, or banking in across the Marina? Squadrons of these things buzzing in above Oliver Plunkett Street, or zooming in under St Patrick’s Bridge like the great scene from The Blue Max shot out in Fermoy?
This is one occasion I’d prefer to see innovation confined to the capital.
Drone delivery of food has a dystopian twist to it that goes far beyond anything we might have seen in the Vietnam war movie I mentioned earlier.
For one thing, this is an overt move to simply remove human beings from the economy. Again. The threat of AI’s advanced technology is one readers will be familiar with, but at least there’s some kind of tech-veneer-rationalisation smeared across that effort to feed us all into the wood chipper.
The move to drone deliveries has a far more traditional backstory.
“Food delivery companies have been investing in drone and robot delivery as part of efforts to reduce the use of gig economy workers and decrease delivery times,” as Jennifer Duggan reported.
Wait, the gig economy has now passed its sell-by date? Some of us are old enough to remember a time when we were told the gig economy was a Good Thing, something which would promote flexible working hours and enable worker freedom and make everyone a successful sub-contractor, etc.
Now that it appears to be getting in the way of efficiency, however, it is going the way of the dodo. Never mind the lack of financial security or reliable hours, or the dubious employment status, not to mention the physical danger and crime faced by delivery cyclists on a regular basis. (Only last March two men appeared in court in Cork in relation to incidents including a Deliveroo driver being rammed off his moped).
No, the rock the gig economy appears to be perishing on is its lack of speed, simply put. We must move onwards, ever onwards, to decrease delivery times, to get that food out a minute or two earlier. The human factor is just one more complication which must be removed.
I do not sit in judgement on readers who enjoy having their grub delivered to the front door. I have savoured a Spice Box or two brought to my own home, in fact.
Drone deliveries may have more of an impact than scooters or e-bikes, however. In your mind’s eye you may be imagining streets and roads untroubled by those ubiquitous delivery folk, but I was intrigued to read recently of the experience of a picturesque town across the water.
The wrote a week or so ago: “The residents of Castle Combe, a village in the Cotswolds, have had to place 'no drone zone' signs in their windows, the local church and public car park after being repeatedly buzzed by camera-wielding aircraft flying over their gardens, streets and in one instance by their bathroom window.”
There’s an irony here which may be lost on the villagers of Castle Combe. Going back to the 60s it was used as a film location for , while more recently it has figured in and on TV, and movies and .
The drone filming is not quite as welcome, as the report adds: “Police were called last month when one drone pilot refused to land his aircraft after filming children playing in a back garden and flying laps up and down the high street at first-floor homes.”
One local recalled the time he “ . . . had a drone follow him along the high street ‘just five feet above my head’, he said, adding: "It was a Californian piloting it, he was a nice guy who didn't know the rules and said he was sorry.
“The parish council has persuaded Wiltshire council to erect a sign at the public car park, built 730 metres up steep and narrow roads from the centre, warning drone pilots: ‘If you use these devices where people can expect privacy, such as inside their home or garden, you are likely to be contravening CAA [Civil Aviation Authority guidelines’.”
There are certainly lessons to be learned from Dublin’s experience. As recently as February, Roderic O’Gorman raised the drone issue in the Dáil, saying: “There are now flight paths over certain estates in Dublin 15 where in an afternoon you could have 30 or 40 drones flying over and back . . . .”
He warned of the need for legislation in this area, but it’s okay because minister of state Sean Canney said a policy framework was being developed after public consultation last year, the framework would be published...
Anyway, when the tribute band put their instruments down the situation was no clearer.
There may be a glimmer of light elsewhere in Dublin, though. The reports that a councillor has asked the local authority to “act under its existing powers, confirmed by the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) to designate Cabra Glasnevin Ward as a Quiet Area, thereby ensuring its formal recognition as a No-Fly Zone for drones.”
I know councillors in Cork have a lot on, but could they designate the city as a Quiet Area and keep the buzzing Valkyries at bay?
Your chips might not be as piping hot as they would be if droned straight to your house, but surely that’s a sacrifice we can all make.
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