This was the question posed in the D\u00e1il last week by Dublin TD Ruth Coppinger, querying why a private company is allowed to disrupt the peace with drone deliveries.<\/p>\n
My answer is an emphatic \u201cNo!\u201d.<\/p>\n
But now, the residents of Blanchardstown in Dublin and Blackrock in Cork do have to tolerate this unnecessary intrusion if a next-door neighbour decides they want a flat white delivered by drone. But the backlash against Manna\u2019s Air Delivery service operating from the Marina Market is mounting. Concerned residents in the Blackrock test zone have organised public meetings, Cork City Council have issued an enforcement notice against the operation in Cork. In Dublin, Manna has been refused retention of its base in Coolmine.<\/p>\n
Curious to know what Manna was offering that was so desirable, I downloaded the app and pretended I lived in a fancy house on Blackrock Road – one of Cork\u2019s more salubrious streets and part of Manna\u2019s delivery test zone – to see, if I was so inclined, what could I get dropped to my back garden. Sausages, donuts, ice pops, steak and chips, Chinese food, pizza, burritos, a can of Coke or even, unexpectedly, a box of tampons. I stopped short of actually ordering \u2014 that would have required sharing my real location so Manna could determine a safe drop zone.<\/p>\n
But truthfully, I would rather go to the Marina Market and eat nice food in the company of other people than have it dropped from on high into my garden.<\/p>\n
Even the Taoiseach himself can\u2019t comprehend the notion of drone delivery. Responding to Coppinger\u2019s question, he said \u201cI do not understand why people cannot just go to a caf\u00e9, socialise and so on or why people think a drone is necessary to deliver a cup of coffee or whatever. It is something I do not comprehend, and I do not think needs to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Noise is the big bugbear. In Manna\u2019s FAQ section \u201cIs the aircraft noisy?\u201d the company says \u201cflying at 50- 65m our drones blend into background noise. Even at delivery height 15m, street traffic makes more drama\u201d. Manna states a Trinity College Dublin study showed Manna\u2019s aircraft make less noise than typical street traffic \u201cblending right into everyday life\u201d.<\/p>\n
\n They seem to be missing the point that a back garden is usually a little oasis set away from street traffic. If you are enjoying the quiet of your garden listening to the sound of the blackbird and are disturbed by a hovering drone in the garden next door, making a noise as loud as street traffic, even briefly, that is dramatic and disturbing.\n <\/p>\n
Regarding privacy, the company says the drones have \u201cone low-res downward camera with tunnel vision for your delivery spot. It only checks that we\u2019re not dropping your sushi onto your rose bushes. No recordings, no saved images, no reels. Your secret garden gnome collection remains your business.\u201d Ah funny. Corporate humour trying to gloss over the fact people will lose the enjoyment of their homes and gardens because the company wants to make money.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not like we have a dearth of food delivery options – Uber Eats, Deliveroo, Just Eat have transformed the food delivery market for good and for bad. Tech companies are forever finding ways to smooth away the so-called inconveniences of living, Manna is just the latest iteration of a familiar tech industry instinct.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t want to cook – Deliveroo. Don\u2019t want to remember anything – Google\/Siri\/Alexa. Don\u2019t want to get up and answer the door – video doorbells. Don\u2019t want to count cash – tap. Don\u2019t want to talk to your friends – messaging. Don\u2019t like yourself in photos – filters.<\/p>\n
Manna touts 3 minute delivery time, cleaner air, less traffic and delivering medical equipment, food and more. Food delivery drivers are nearly all on electric bikes these days, so the clean air and less traffic argument is weak. I didn\u2019t see a defibrillator listed next to the donuts in the dropdown menu, but I guess in the future it could.<\/p>\n
To be fair, this technology did appear genuinely useful during the pandemic when it was flying pharmacy orders from its test base in Moneygall but it\u2019s hard to justify any real need for them in today\u2019s world.<\/p>\n
Coppinger\u2019s final question to the Taoiseach was \u201cIs it not time to outlaw the delivery of fast food by commercial drones in residential areas? The nuisance that they cause and the impact they have is way beyond the necessity for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
France offers an example of how to handle drones. The French have decided that the tranquillity and safety of their citizens take precedence over the convenience of operators and they operate strict no-fly zones in urban areas and populated areas. Commercial operators wishing to fly a drone in a restricted area must fulfil stringent requirements and give ten days\u2019 notice to the local prefecture. I discovered this while organising a documentary shoot in Nantes recently and the paperwork timeline and restrictions threatened to derail our filming schedule.<\/p>\n
\n My initial frustration, however, gave way to quiet admiration for the underlying principle.\n <\/p>\n
Technology does not automatically earn the right to colonise public space just because it exists. Perhaps, when it comes to drone delivery, we could borrow a little of that Gallic disposition and feel perfectly comfortable saying: non.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cShould hundreds of people lose their peace and quiet in order for a cup of coffee to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[37325,61,60,151117,80],"class_list":["post-478782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-cork-opinion","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kathriona-devereux","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}