Amazing Invention- This Drone Will Change Everything

Summary

The video script showcases Zipline's innovative drone delivery system, which provides fast, efficient, and environmentally friendly package and medical supply delivery. From its nearly silent operation to its precision landings, Zipline's technology has been transforming lives, especially in Rwanda, where it has significantly reduced maternal mortality rates. The script also highlights the potential of drone technology for future applications, such as personal transportation, and emphasizes the inspirational story of Abdul, a Zipline engineer who overcame personal tragedy to contribute to life-saving innovations.

Takeaways

• 🛬 Zipline, a company specializing in drone delivery, can deliver packages with high precision and minimal noise, revolutionizing the future of package delivery.
• 🚚 Traditional delivery methods using large, gas-powered vehicles are inefficient and harmful to the environment, especially for lightweight items like lunch.
• 🔋 Drone delivery offers a faster, fully electric, autonomous, and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional delivery methods.
• 🎯 Zipline's delivery drones are capable of making precision landings even in high winds, with the main drone staying at a safe height of 400 feet.
• 🕊️ The drone's propeller design is inspired by nature, particularly hummingbirds, to achieve quiet flight and energy efficiency.
• 🌍 Zipline has been operating in Rwanda for over six years, delivering critical medical supplies to remote areas and significantly reducing in-hospital maternal mortality rates.
• 👨‍💼 The company's success is attributed to its engineering ingenuity and the resilience of its team, who persevered through initial failures and skepticism.
• 🏥 Zipline's drone system is robust, operating 24/7 regardless of weather conditions, and capable of night flights without human intervention.
• 🚁 The drone's design includes redundancies and safety measures, such as the ability to fly with a non-functioning propeller and automatic parachute deployment in case of emergencies.
• 🛍️ The potential applications of Zipline's technology extend beyond package delivery, suggesting possibilities for urban transportation and even personal mobility solutions.
• 🌳 The story of Abdul, a Zipline employee from Rwanda, demonstrates the power of engineering to inspire and save lives, fostering a sense of optimism and innovation in the next generation.

Q & A

What is the primary function of Zipline's drone system?

Zipline's drone system is designed for package delivery, including critical medical supplies, with high precision and speed, operating silently and autonomously.

How quickly can Zipline's drone deliver a package?

Zipline's drone can deliver a package in as little as two minutes with dinner plate accuracy.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 The Future of Drone Delivery with Zipline

The script introduces the concept of drone delivery, highlighting the efficiency and speed of Zipline's drone system. The narrator expresses initial skepticism about the noise and safety of large drones but is impressed by Zipline's silent and precise delivery method. The company's use of drones for medical supply delivery in remote areas, particularly in Rwanda, is emphasized, showcasing its life-saving impact. The script also touches on the environmental benefits of drone delivery over traditional gas-powered vehicles.

05:00

🛠️ Zipline's Engineering Innovations and Rwandan Roots

This paragraph delves into the engineering behind Zipline's drone delivery system, focusing on its noise reduction and precision landing capabilities. The story of Abdul, a Zipline employee from Rwanda who overcame personal tragedy to contribute to the company's success, is shared. The script describes the process of a blood delivery order, from packing to drone launch, and the efficiency of the team operating the system. It also mentions the challenges faced and the iterative engineering process that led to the current design of the drones.

10:01

🌍 Transforming Lives with Drone Deliveries in Rwanda

The script narrates the impact of Zipline's drone delivery service on healthcare in Rwanda, where it has significantly reduced maternal mortality rates. It details the narrator's experience placing an emergency order and the subsequent delivery, as well as interviews with doctors and patients who have benefited from the service. The expansion of Zipline's operations globally and its potential to serve thousands of hospitals by the end of the year is also discussed.

15:04

🏞️ Rwanda's Progress and the Potential of Urban Drone Delivery

The script reflects on the narrator's experiences in Rwanda, highlighting the country's unity, optimism, and advancements in technology and education. It discusses Rwanda's environmental initiatives, economic growth, and low crime rate. The potential of Zipline's short-range city delivery drones for urban areas is explored, addressing concerns about noise and safety, and the benefits of using drones for various businesses, including local shops and large retail stores.

20:06

🔍 Zipline's Quiet Propellers and the Vision for Future Transportation

The script explains the design principles behind Zipline's quiet propellers, inspired by hummingbirds, and how they reduce noise pollution. It discusses the safety measures in place, such as redundancy and parachute deployment, and the company's impressive safety record. The potential for drone technology to revolutionize personal transportation, such as an ambulance drone, is proposed. The script concludes with a reflection on the inspiring impact of Zipline's work on the local community and the future of drone technology.

🎁 CrunchLabs: Inspiring the Next Generation of Engineers

The final paragraph introduces CrunchLabs, a subscription service aimed at teaching children engineering principles through monthly build boxes. It emphasizes the importance of critical thinking and resilience in learning, drawing a parallel with the journey of Abdul and the impact of Zipline's work. The script invites viewers to subscribe to CrunchLabs for a chance to win a day of designing with the team, reinforcing the message of empowering children to create and build their dreams.

Keywords

💡Drone Delivery

Drone delivery refers to the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to transport goods and services from one location to another. In the video, it is the central theme illustrating the near future of package delivery, with Zipline's system being highlighted for its efficiency and precision. The script mentions the delivery of band-aids to the speaker's backyard within minutes, showcasing the speed and convenience of drone delivery.

💡Zipline

Zipline is a company specializing in drone delivery services, particularly for medical supplies in remote areas. The video discusses Zipline's innovative approach to package delivery, emphasizing its use of drones for delivering critical medical supplies in countries like Rwanda. The company's technology and impact are central to the video's narrative, illustrating the potential of drone delivery to transform logistics and save lives.

💡Autonomous

Autonomous refers to the ability of a system or machine to operate independently without human intervention. In the context of the video, the drones used by Zipline are described as fully autonomous, meaning they can navigate, make decisions, and complete deliveries without direct human control. This is a key feature that enables the efficiency and safety of the drone delivery system.

💡Electric Propulsion

Electric propulsion is a form of propulsion that uses electric power, often from batteries, to generate thrust or lift. The video mentions that Zipline's drones are fully electric, which means they operate using electric motors for propulsion. This is significant as it highlights the environmental benefits of drone delivery over traditional fossil fuel-powered vehicles.

💡Precision Landing

Precision landing refers to the ability of an aircraft or drone to land with a high degree of accuracy in a specific location. The script describes how Zipline's drones can achieve 'dartboard-sized precision landings,' even in high winds, which is crucial for delivering packages directly to a user's backyard or a hospital without causing disturbance or damage.

💡Teleportation

In the video, teleportation is used metaphorically to describe the rapid and seemingly instantaneous delivery of goods by drones. The term is used to emphasize the speed and efficiency of Zipline's delivery system, which can deliver items within minutes, making it feel as though the items have been teleported to the recipient.

💡Inefficiency of Traditional Delivery

The script points out the inefficiency of traditional delivery methods, particularly the use of large, gas-powered vehicles to transport small packages. This is contrasted with the efficiency of drone delivery, which is faster, environmentally friendly, and cost-effective. The term underscores the need for and benefits of innovative delivery solutions like those provided by Zipline.

💡Medical Supplies

Medical supplies encompass the various materials and equipment needed for healthcare, such as blood, medications, and emergency kits. The video discusses how Zipline has been using drones to deliver these critical supplies to remote areas for over six years, emphasizing the life-saving impact of their services in countries with many remote villages.

💡Gliding Drones

Gliding drones are a type of UAV designed to cover longer distances by utilizing aerodynamic principles to glide through the air. The script suggests the potential of using gliding drones for delivering critical medical supplies over long distances to remote locations, highlighting an innovative application of drone technology in logistics.

💡Silent Drone System

A silent drone system refers to a drone that operates with minimal noise, making it less disruptive to the environment. The video emphasizes the near-silence of Zipline's drones, which is achieved through unique propeller design inspired by hummingbirds. This feature is important for community acceptance and the practicality of urban drone operations.

💡Parachute Delivery

Parachute delivery is a method where a package or payload is dropped from an aircraft and descends to the ground using a parachute for a safe landing. In the context of the video, Zipline's drones use parachutes to safely deliver packages, ensuring the cargo reaches its destination without damage, even when dropped from significant heights.

💡Engineering Resilience

Engineering resilience is the ability of a system or structure to withstand or recover from failures, errors, or unexpected events. The video script highlights the resilience built into Zipline's drones, such as redundancy in critical systems and the deployment of aircraft parachutes in case of problems, ensuring the safety and reliability of their operations.

💡CrunchLabs

CrunchLabs is a toy company with an educational focus, aiming to teach children to think like engineers. The video mentions CrunchLabs as a way to build resilience in children's thinking by encouraging them to learn through building and failing, similar to the iterative process of engineering and product development exemplified by Zipline's journey.

Highlights

Introduction of Zipline's nearly silent drone system for package delivery with high precision.

Drone delivery's potential to reduce traffic, vehicle emissions, and improve delivery speed and efficiency.

Zipline's innovative design allowing for lateral movement of the delivery droid and whisper-quiet operation.

The company's focus on using engineering to positively impact the world, unaffiliated with sponsorship.

Zipline's application of drone technology for medical supply delivery in remote areas, starting in Rwanda.

The high operational efficiency of Zipline's drone system, likened to an F1 pit crew.

Detailed explanation of the drone's launch process, from order to flight, within 90 seconds.

Use of a catapult launcher to achieve cruising speed instantly, reducing energy consumption.

Autonomous navigation and return system of the drone, capable of 150-mile round trips.

The story of Abdul, a Zipline engineer in Rwanda, who overcame personal tragedy to contribute to drone technology.

Demonstration of the drone's quiet operation and comparison to natural birds, inspired by hummingbirds.

Safety features of Zipline's drones, including redundancy and automatic parachute deployment.

Practical applications of drone delivery for grocery stores and pharmacies, reducing packaging waste.

Potential future developments in drone technology, such as human transportation via drone ambulances.

Inspirational impact of Zipline's work on local communities, fostering a new generation of engineers.

CrunchLabs' mission to teach kids engineering principles through hands-on building experiences.

The vision of a future where drone delivery is commonplace, potentially even for CrunchLabs subscription boxes.

Transcripts

- I cut my finger making lunch, so I placed an order

for some band-aids a couple minutes ago,

and now they're four seconds away.

(drone whirs)

(bag plops on deck)

That is a nearly silent drone system that can

deliver a package from the sky right to my backyard

in as little as two minutes with dinner plate accuracy.

And as far as I am concerned,

that's basically teleportation.

This is the very near future

of package delivery from a company called Zipline.

It's been over a decade since we were first

promised drone delivery that looked like this.

And to be honest, I was never that stoked about it,

because I couldn't imagine that anyone

would actually want something that big and loud

with dangerously fast spinning propellers

landing anywhere near their house.

And that was a bummer, 'cause with the explosion

of people using Amazon or food delivery apps

like DoorDash or Instacart, billions of doorstep deliveries

are now happening every year.

But when your lunch only weighs a few ounces

driving it to everyone with these two-ton,

gas-powered vehicles is wildly inefficient,

bad for the whole planet, and not to mention

just really slow.

Drone delivery would not only

take a lot of cars off the road,

but it would be a lot faster than a car,

it would be fully electric, fully autonomous,

and it would cost pennies worth of energy per delivery.

And with Zipline, because the droid that lowers the package

can move laterally in any direction, it could make

a dartboard-sized precision landing even in high winds,

while the main drone can stay 400 feet up in the sky,

making the whole thing whisper quiet.

(drone makes high pitched whistle)

That is very quiet.

Also due in part to the clever design

of these really funky propellers.

As you all know, I only make about 10 videos a year.

And while most are just sort of ridiculous-

(cannon explodes)

- [Offscreen Speaker] What?!

(devices explode)

(horn beeps) (person screams)

(foam bullet whizzes)

(bell dings)

I like to dedicate one video to showcase

how clever people are using engineering

to change the world for the better.

And to be clear, the company I'm talking about today

is not sponsoring this or paying me in any way.

I'm just really impressed by the work that they're doing

and how they're doing it.

So we'll circle back in a minute

to exactly how they're gonna pull off deliveries

using these short-range drones in a city.

But it begs the question, if they can make it work there,

why not use gliding drones to cover longer distances

to deliver critical medical supplies

for countries with lots of remote villages?

Well, as it turns out, catapulting life-saving blood

through the skies is what they've already been doing

for over six years, which is why we need

to head out to Rwanda to understand where this all started.

And immediately after showing up,

we were right in the thick of it as drones were taking off-

Wow! (laughing)

And landing-

That was another one land!

Every 90 seconds.

They're coming from everywhere.

And as a newcomer, it felt a bit chaotic.

But if you're gonna rack up 40 million miles worth

of drone flights,

(launcher zings)

your team needs to be operating

with the efficiency of an F1 pit crew.

So here's a crash course on how it all works.

It all starts with an order coming in

from a doctor at a hospital, say for example,

for an emergency supply of blood.

Then once it's all packed up, it gets passed out

to be placed in the belly of the drone,

and then the whole thing is placed on the launcher.

At that point, they attach the wings

and secure the battery, followed by the nose cone.

Then after some pre-flight safety checks,

they launch the drone (launcher zings),

all within 90 seconds of the order coming in.

The catapult launcher takes the drone from zero

to 65 miles an hour in a third of a second

which is literally less time than it takes you to blink.

And it's a pretty clever design, too, because it means

the drone immediately starts at its cruising speed,

where it takes much less energy to stay airborne.

Then once it's in the air cruising at 70 miles per hour,

it navigates its way to the hospital,

and upon arriving, opens the trap door to drop the package,

which lands safely using a parachute.

Having now completed the mission

it continues making all its own decisions to

autonomously navigate back home

from as far away as 150 miles round trip.

Then taking inspiration from an aircraft carrier,

as the drone approaches, the military-grade GPS

broadcasts its position within one centimeter.

So these two poles know exactly when to swing up

at the last possible moment, snagging a hook

on the tail with the cable, which safely slows it down.

Then once it's settled to a stop,

the crew comes in to remove the battery and wings,

and it all goes back into rotation.

The whole thing is really impressive and incredibly robust,

which means it works in pretty much any weather.

And because there's no human steering it,

it has no issues flying at night.

So they run the operation 24 hours a day,

which is how in six years, they've managed to make

those half a million, often lifesaving deliveries.

That is the uppermost top of the iceberg tip

of how they're doing what they're doing.

But what you should know is six years ago

all the experts told them this was a hopeless cause

and failure was a near certainty,

and they kind of weren't wrong.

- Building an engineering product take time.

So you prototype, you know, you build it,

and then you fail, and then you try it again,

and you fail, and you try it again,

until you have this shiny product that you want.

This is a different type of aircraft.

This is not what we had.

The first one used to land on these inflated mattresses.

The vehicle had a hook on the back.

- [Mark] Yeah.

- By the tail. - Yeah.

- [Engineer] The tail would deploy like an aircraft carrier.

- [Mark] Yeah.

- [Engineer] And then the fishing pole would pull it,

and it would land on the mattress.

- [Mark] First of all, he's not saying that figuratively.

They were scrappy in the early days,

using actual fishing poles, as you could see here.

And secondly, this is Abdul.

And what you should know about Abdul is he grew up

in Rwanda, not far from where these drones are launching.

And while he would eventually go on to do graduate work

in robotics, attending both Stanford and Harvard,

he got his start in engineering from much more simple means.

- I remember that I would make cars from milk boxes

that, you know, was leftover.

You know, we would add tires then and use it as a car.

- Abdul was orphaned as a child when he lost both

of his parents and all three of his siblings

in the Rwandan genocide, narrowly escaping himself.

But he didn't give up on his passion for engineering.

And so as he got older, he would go around

to all the local hospitals, fixing their MRI machines

for free, using knowledge he gained

from watching YouTube videos.

Abdul's the very first Zipline employee in Rwanda,

and he really helped to pioneer so many

of the systems they have in place today

that are now used all over the world.

And so in an effort to test those very systems,

I wanted to see if it was robust enough

that even a total newb like me could send out an order.

Oh, we got one.

Panic!

- (laughs) Don't worry.

- Don't worry?

Okay.

Gloves, okay? (blows air into glove)

Good enough. (snaps glove)

This is where the blood is, right?

- O positive.

- It's O positive.

- [Worker] Yeah.

- I feel like I shouldn't be touching this.

Stay calm.

That's the number one rule.

- Now you scan it.

- Scan it?

(scanner beeps)

- Do six wraps.

- Like this?

- Two, three, four-

- Five, okay.

(rips paper and grunts)

(label snaps in the air)

(Worker chuckles)

Just out here saving lives.

And once I ring the bell, (bell dings)

it's the drone team's problem.

Okay, what do I do?

- Check if there's no tangles.

- [Mark] And push it here?

Out of my way.

I'm comin' through!

The wings.

How's that?

Battery?

Which one do we pick?

There's so many!

So after a final check of the drone's condition

little bit of look to the right and cough.

(instruments beep)

(propellers whir)

(launcher zings)

We had lift off.

Yeehah!

I'm a hero.

We did it.

I just like saved life basically.

Wow!

How do you guys do this all day long?

So now that I had a pretty good feel for the launch site,

we headed out to see where some of these drones

were actually flying to.

So we left the launch site like three and a half hours ago.

We're driving to this remote hospital

on these really windy roads.

And as we've been driving, we've been tracking

and seeing some of these Zipline drones

delivering blood and medical supplies to this hospital.

So since we're about a half hour out

I thought it would be fun to place my own emergency order.

Then it could meet us when we get there.

'Cause when you need extra ointment,

you just need extra ointment.

And sure enough, a few minutes after arriving

I got a notification for an incoming package.

This is wild, because we're like four hours away

on some really windy roads.

I got it!

(laughs) Close.

So close.

- And so after opening the package

and checking their handiwork,

I asked if I could speak to a few of the doctors.

When's the last time you delivered a baby

- In few minutes ago.

- A few minutes ago? (laughing)

That's pretty fresh.

- For the doctors, it was like a miracle.

- With Zipline, we are sure that in 15 to 20 minutes,

we're going to get what we need.

And you are sure that patient will be saved.

- But it wasn't just the doctors who were big on Zipline.

I also spoke with a handful

of patients who for various different reasons

are all alive today because of a Zipline delivery.

(speaking foreign language)

- [Translator] Every time when I see the drones around

I just think that someone's life is going to be saved.

- And that's kind of true, 'cause their drones have reduced

in-hospital maternal mortality by 88%.

Zipline has two launch sites that give them coverage

for pretty much anywhere in Rwanda, but they also

have operations running in all of these countries.

And while they serve 3000 hospitals globally today,

that number will be 10,000 by the end of the the year.

All right, so we've covered their long range country

delivery drones, which means we've now got the context

to talk about their short range city delivery drones.

But first I just have to interject here and say

I was blown away by Rwanda as a country.

I mean right outta the gate, their stoplights

are really cool because they're just countdowns

till the light turns green.

They can balance and carry pretty much anything

on their heads, and there's motorcycle taxis everywhere.

And given that when in Rwanda, you do as the Rwandans do

whenever possible, that's how we got around ourselves.

What a freakin' boost!

Everyone was also super friendly everywhere we went.

Well, not everyone, because if you stop to play soccer

with some random kids-

Am I good, am I good?

Just know they're not gonna take it easy on you.

(kids laugh)

Besides the fact that Messi seems to like it,

before traveling there, the only real thing

I knew about Rwanda was the Rwandan genocide

that took place about 30 years ago.

And while there are still plenty of battle scars,

as horrific as that was, it sort of galvanized the country

into a period of healing and solidarity

as a single Rwandan people, instead

of divisive ethnic groups.

For example, on the last Saturday of the month,

literally everyone spends the day picking up trash

and volunteering in their local communities.

And that's one of the reasons

you hardly see litter anywhere.

The other one being 15 years ago, they were one

of the first countries to ban all single-use plastics.

There was just a pervasive optimism in the air.

Everyone was moving with the purpose everywhere we went,

not just working hard but working smart

with their resources on hand.

Yeah, buddy!

Including their improvised soccer balls.

For over a decade attending school up to age 16

has been both mandatory and free.

And when you combine that with leapfrogging

to new technologies like drone delivery,

for the last decade their economy has been growing

at four times the rate of the US economy,

while their violent crime rate

has been 15 times less than the US.

And finally the most awe-inducing part of the whole trip

was when I hiked to see an entire family

of mountain gorillas up close in the wild,

which was equal parts adorable and terrifying.

I think he's looking at me.

Mountain gorillas only exist in these two tiny red regions,

and while there's only a thousand left in the world

I got to just chill with 20 of 'em.

They're critically endangered.

But thanks to Rwandan conservation efforts,

funded by people paying for brief visits like this,

their numbers have climbed by 200 over the past decade.

All that's to say that besides of course, my own country,

Rwanda is my new second-favorite country.

We got this.

And next time I go back, I'm bringing a bunch

of soccer balls-

Oh yeah!

Which I will give away to any kid

who just promises not to embarrass me.

(animated firebomb explodes)

Okay, so now let's talk a little bit more

about these new short-range city drones.

Because for the 4 billion doorstep deliveries

that will happen this year in the US,

and that number doesn't even include Amazon, by the way,

Why not at least try and take some

of those slow-moving-traffic-causing, two-ton-gas-guzzling

cars off the road, in exchange for a much faster delivery

that's also electric, autonomous, really quiet,

and zero emissions.

And while the solution of dropping down a droid

that could perfectly control its landing

from super high up seemed promising and way better

than something like this that had been proposed before,

when they first told me about it, I had two main questions.

One, how loud and disruptive are they?

Because the last thing we want are annoying drones

buzzing by our rooftops all day.

And two, how safe are they?

Because the other last thing we want

is for those same annoying drones to start falling

down on us from the sky.

I also had a bonus third question around how a business

is even supposed to load in their items for delivery.

And so in a search for answers,

I went right to their headquarters

not that far down the road from where I live.

And the first thing you notice in the lobby

is this really cool projection that not only shows

the total number of flights they've flown,

now at over half million, but it also shows

all the long-range drones they have in the air

at that exact moment, delivering

those critical medical supplies all around the world.

And this isn't now just where they design

and build all their drones.

It's also where they do a lot of their testing.

And they test pretty much everything in every way possible

before getting it out to the field as quickly as possible.

And according to their CEO, Keller,

this is something they discovered early on.

- Our key insight was we were dumb,

and we basically always assumed we were dumb.

And for that reason, when we designed things,

we got them into the real world super fast.

- [Mark] Yeah.

- [Keller] And learned by serving real people.

- [Mark] Yeah.

- And you learn so much

that you can't learn in a lab or in an ivory tower.

- And so before we actually hear

just how quiet these things are,

I just wanna echo that all the best engineers

I've ever known have had that same level of humility,

knowing there's no better way to learn

than to test and to break stuff.

That's why I named the toy company I started

that has the express goal of teaching kids

to think like engineers, CrunchLabs.

It's because things are supposed to crunch

and to break and to fail along the way.

And so if I could get them to do more than just

passively watch a video by building something alongside me

while we talk about the physics of what's going on,

then I know the principles will really sink in.

- Yes.

- So if you wanna have a ton of fun while building up

that resiliency in your brain like a muscle-

- That works!

- [Mark] Just head to CrunchLabs.com

or use the link in the video description.

All right, so to answer my first question

on the noise level, I'll just show you my actual reaction

to the first time I heard it.

I mean, I hear something.

But I cannot believe that's airborne!

Are you serious?

And I just wish there was a better way to convey this

on video, but here's my best attempt.

You'll first hear a leaf blower,

then a typical hobby drone that weighs one pound,

then their drone that weighs 50 pounds.

And of course, I've kept the audio levels

completely untouched for all three.

(leaf blower hums)

(drone whirs)

(drone lightly whistles)

That is whisper quiet.

That is very quiet.

(cow moos)

That cow is way louder (laughing) than that drone.

I bet the mic picked up that cow.

And this test was incredibly surprising to me,

because I sort of just assumed the weight

of a thing would exactly determine how loud the propellers

will end up being to keep that thing in the air.

But it turns out that's not actually true,

even if you just look at nature.

Pigeons, for example, sound like this.

(pigeon flaps)

But with owls, there's an evolutionary pressure

to be as quiet as possible.

And as a result, their flight sounds like this.

For this reason, to crack the code,

Zipline actually did turn to nature.

- We studied the hummingbird a lot where you have-

- Oh sure.

- They have the worst case.

They're tiny, and they're really quiet.

They just like hover there.

You barely hear them.

- By the way, that's Keenan.

He's another Zipline co-founder.

And for your robotics nerds, he's the dude who invented ROS,

which is the open source software used by basically anyone

who wants to build anything robotic.

So in effort to try and visualize the secret

of their quiet propellers, in this graph, the area

under the curve could represent the energy from one

of those annoying high-pitched hobby drones,

where the closeness of these spikes is the high frequency

that's just sort of grating on your ears.

So after studying the hummingbird and designing

really wild-looking rotors like this, Zipline figured out

how to take those spikes and flatten them all out.

So while the extra weight means there's still more energy,

or area under the curve, getting rid of all the spikes,

means it's much more of a constant whooshing sound.

More like white noise that your brain just sort

of doesn't register.

They use the same quiet propeller approach

for their long range drones, as you could tell

from this doctor with an impeccable taste

in YouTube content who just wanted to say hi.

You've seen my videos, now you get to be in one.

(laughs)

Have you seen the planes fly over

and deliver the supplies here?

- I have not yet seen one come and deposit something here.

- That's amazing.

There was just 15 deliveries in the last hour

- They're really quiet.

If I would have heard it, I would have, you know,

gone to see it.

- For my second question regarding safety.

Just like when sending something to Mars,

all their critical systems have backups on board.

In engineering, we call this redundancy.

And they even demonstrated for us how if one propeller

stops working, it could still fly, due in part

to the large back propeller that picks up the slack.

And that back propeller is pretty clever, by the way,

because it's what propels the drone forward as it moves

across town.

But then it turns down 90 degrees to help steer

and create extra lift while it's stationary and dropping

down the droid.

In addition to the redundancy, a whole aircraft parachute

is automatically deployed if there's a problem

that's sensed, or if the drone just loses power altogether.

And because of their painstaking engineering efforts

it's worth noting, in the six years they've been operating

for those half a million flights, they've had exactly

zero incidents causing any injury.

As for my third bonus question

around how the drones get loaded up,

in the most simple case, something like a grocery store

could reserve some parking spots as a loading zone.

Or as one of the Zipline engineers told me-

- You can take a window from your local pharmacy

and turn it into this portal.

- So the droid would come down the chute,

then some ASAP items like these would get loaded inside,

then it goes back up the chute, into the drone,

and off for delivery.

For healthcare, if you were really sick,

and say, on a 15-minute video call with your doctor,

by the time the call was ending, your medications could be

on your back porch, so you don't have to leave your house.

You could also imagine how this could work

with a distribution center or a large retail store.

More than 90% of people in the US

live within 10 miles of a large retail store,

and Zipline drones conveniently can make

a 10-mile round trip while carrying up to eight pounds.

An additional win for the planet here

is you don't need to use all the cardboard to box it up,

because it doesn't have to survive

being shipped out on a big truck.

But this isn't just for big stores.

Your favorite local shop or restaurant can now

more easily afford to send a thing to your door

but at an ostensibly much lower cost

than a person driving a 3000 pound car to drop it off.

And as soon as by the end of this year,

customers such as Sweetgreen will start delivering salads

straight to your backyard.

And not having packages left on front porches

is the worst news to hit the porch pirate community

since the invention of the glitter bomb.

- Aww, you (bleep).

(device sprays)

- Alright, all right, we (bleep) get it.

Okay.

- All right.

So if your mind isn't already blown

let me try one final time by planting a seed

for something we might see much further in the future.

And to be clear, this is not at all from Zipline.

It's just an idea that won't leave my head

after seeing all this.

Because it stands to reason,

if the system can work for packages,

it should be able to work for humans, right?

In other words, imagine a bigger drone.

Let's say it's an ambulance, with more powerful

but equally quiet propellers, parked so high up in the sky,

you can hardly see it.

Then it lowers the entire cockpit like the droid,

which could quietly touch down in your driveway.

So you hop in, or they put you in on the ground,

then it reels you in, so you can glide above roads

and traffic straight to your destination,

only to be dropped off safely in the same manner.

All right, so finally, I just wanna wrap up

with the coolest part of all of this by far.

The whole time we were there, kids would be lined up

at the fence to watch the drones

be launched and captured over and over.

In fact, one kid came up specifically wanting to show Abdul

what he built completely on his own.

And in that moment, it was impossible not to compare

the complexity of this build

to the simple milk carton version Abdul grew up making.

Because here you have Abdul who bears a scar on his head

from the same machete that killed his entire family

as a child, not only using his engineering knowledge

to save the lives of his people, but more importantly,

to inspire the next generation of problem solvers

to dream even bigger.

It's the type of thing that leaves you feeling

a little bit of that contagious Rwandan optimism

for the future and the incredible potential

of us mere humans.

In the future, your CrunchLabs box

just might come from the sky.

And the best part of Abdul's story

is how using the superpower of engineering,

they literally willed something into existence

that is now saving lives.

(cable zips)

(Mark hits the floor)

And as it says on the box, my goal with CrunchLabs

is to help you think like an engineer.

That means you know how to think critically

and break a problem down into manageable steps.

Thinking like an engineer makes you a better soccer player

or piano practicer or math studier,

because you're resilient.

And just like Abdul, you know the importance

of failing a bunch before you finally hit that breakthrough.

(goo explodes)

(kids yell)

So the way it works is every month,

a really fun toy comes in a box like this.

And when you open it, there's a link to a video

where you not only build it alongside me, but I teach you

all the juicy physics principles behind how the toy works.

And the best part of all is each month,

we randomly select one box to slip in a platinum ticket.

And if it happens to be your box-

- [Parent] Oh my gosh!

You won, buddy! - Oh my gosh!

(kid whoops)

- Then you're coming out right here to CrunchLabs

to design with me and my team for a day.

So if you wanna unlock the superpower of learning

to create and build whatever you could dream up,

use the link in the video description,

or go to CrunchLabs.com and order

your Build Box subscription today.

Thanks for watching.

(bell dings)

(logo pops)