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Lifesaving Drones

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  • Dave: Norbert, we may think it's cool to get our pizza delivered by a drone, but it just pales next to what one company is doing in Africa. These guys are delivering lifesaving medical supplies to remote regions in Africa. Wow.

    Norbert: I know! It's a California robotics firm called Zipline and these drones can zip along at one hundred eighty miles an hour.

    One of Zipline's founders became inspired after a visit to Tanzania where people died because of poor infrastructure. While a courier can deliver blood within minutes in America, only a third of Africans live within a mile of a road that's open year round. That's why the Rwandan government partnered with Zipline.

    After a text, the drones can deliver blood or medicine within thirty minutes even up to ninety miles away. The drones are loaded and launched from a 'nest' base in the city center. First the flight path is loaded onto a SIM card, then the drone flies to the clinic that placed the order and drops the payload using a paper parachute from a low altitude before returning to base.

    Its path is tracked using a tablet app and can be altered as needed. Each drone is the size of a large dog and can carry three and a half pounds of blood or medicine, and can make fifty to one hundred fifty deliveries a day. The Zipline drones are incredibly affordable, costing about as much as a motorcycle.

    One major challenge for some countries is their unstable governments where the drones could be mistaken for a weapon. But this isn't stopping a number of developing countries from exploring these lifesaving machines.

More Information

A Drone to Save the World
Developing countries are skipping over roads and going straight to drones for providing health care.

Drones are Delivering Blood to Hospitals in Rwanda
A faster way to ship life-saving supplies across the country.

Drones Will Begin Delivering Blood and Medicine in the U.S.
After launching in Rwanda, Zipline brings its fleet of medical drones to three US states.

View all episodes >>

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