Name: No roads? There's a drone for that
Uploaded: 2013-11-21T15:59:12Z
Duration: 9 min 11 s
Description: A billion people in the world lack access to all-season roads. Could the structure of the internet provide a model for how to reach them? Andreas Raptopoulos of Matternet thinks so. He introduces a new type of transportation system that uses electric autonomous flying machines to deliver medicine, food, goods and supplies wherever they are needed.

Andreas Raptopoulos: No roads? There's a drone for that

No roads? There's a drone for that

A billion people in the world lack access to all-season roads. Could the structure of the internet provide a model for how to reach them? Andreas Raptopoulos of Matternet thinks so. He introduces a new type of transportation system that uses electric autonomous flying machines to deliver medicine, food, goods and supplies wherever they are needed.

A billion people are cut off from reliable transport because they lack all-season roads, leaving vital goods and medicine stranded for months. Inspired by how mobile phones bypassed landlines, a new network uses electric autonomous drones to deliver supplies across vast, inaccessible regions. In Haiti, these flying vehicles completed real-world deliveries after disasters. The system costs just 24 cents to send two kilograms over ten kilometers, opening opportunities where traditional infrastructure fails.