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from the getting-plugged-in-to-the-future dept.
For years, UPS has been gesturing toward a future where some of its delivery vehicles are electric, autonomous, or drones. Now, the delivery giant is taking steps to make that happen with a trio of announcements designed to boost the company's profile — and maybe its stock, too — ahead of its quarterly earnings report. It's the latest sign of UPS's ambition to future-proof its business, especially as Amazon builds out its own delivery infrastructure.
The first announcement concerns a pilot project with Waymo, the Alphabet subsidiary and leading operator of self-driving vehicles. UPS will use some of Waymo's self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans to shuttle packages between some of its stores in the Metro Phoenix area and its hub in Tempe, Arizona. The minivans won't be fully driverless; Waymo says it will keep trained safety drivers in the front seat to monitor operations. Despite the limited nature of the pilot, both Waymo and UPS say a "long-term plan" between the companies remains possible.
[...] The second announcement relates to electric vehicles. UPS says it will purchase 10,000 electric delivery vans from a UK startup called Arrival, which it will then add to its fleet in the UK, Europe, and North America over the next four years. UPS's venture capital arm will also make an investment in Arrival of an undisclosed amount.
Arrival only just emerged out of quasi-stealth in recent weeks after announcing a $110 million investment from Hyundai and Kia. Arrival has been working with UPS for several years, first announcing their partnership in 2016. Arrival says that today's vehicle order and investment will "accelerate deployment of fit-for-purpose electric fleets at scale."
[...] Lastly, UPS says it will bring its drone delivery testing to San Diego. The company has been delivering pharmaceuticals and other lightweight cargo to people's homes in North Carolina in partnership with CVS Pharmacy as well as Matternet, a drone logistics company. Now, it will start test deliveries with the University of California San Diego health system.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 01 2020, @07:18PM (9 children)
Can suck a big fat egg for trying to say burning oil/gas is the only way to maintain civilization. Even if they burn oil/gas/coal to generate the electricity for these vehicles they are still more efficient!!
Anti-science but totally capable of comprehending the science. Khallow, I can't even.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 01 2020, @07:40PM (5 children)
Is preemptive trolling the next thing?
(Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Saturday February 01 2020, @07:57PM (2 children)
Seems so. I'm assuming you made a comment somewhere that there wasn't a viable short term alternative to continuing to burn fossil fuels, or maybe that electric cars weren't as carbon friendly as people think?
Fusion can't get here fast enough IMO.
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 01 2020, @08:45PM (1 child)
Fusion is great and all but some AC says it'll boil off the oceans in a few hundred years
(Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Saturday February 01 2020, @10:02PM
Hmmm, maybe not fusion specifically, but exponentially increasing power generation/usage comes with a very real planetary heat dissipation problem long term if we don't want to follow in Venus's footsteps.
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 01 2020, @08:43PM
A) not trolling
B) just a continuation from the arguments he had made
C) reality doesn't care about your feefees :D:);P
Z) siddown, shaddup, let the adults finally have a decade to clean up the house before you shit on the carpets again.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday February 01 2020, @09:52PM
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday February 02 2020, @03:12AM (2 children)
How much does that efficiency presently cost? Sorry, they're quite inefficient at present in that way.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 03 2020, @12:36AM (1 child)
????
So you are at a loss and will just state a quibbling falsehood? Electric motors would still be more efficient than internal combustion engines, and if we switch off coal/gas/oil then there is simply no more air pollution and excessive energy lost to waste heat.
Just when I start thinking you might be capable of objectivity and following the science you retreat into your core belief system ignoring simple facts.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday February 04 2020, @05:24PM
At saving what? And how much is it going to cost for those self-driving electric vehicles?
Air pollution, well that still has some value to reduce, but waste heat? Not that important compared to delivering packages.