Debit Card Drone Delivery

Anthorn

Newcomer Starling Bank according to a press release is testing delivery of its debit card by drone which can be delivered indoors or to a garden outdoors. Since I live in a flat I foresee a robotic voice shouting in monotone, "Please open your window so I can deliver your debit card."

But hold on a minute, a debit card in its packaging weighing a pound? I may need a bigger wallet.

https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/29902/flight-of-fancy-starling-bank-ponders-debit-card-drone-delivery

grumbler

Without a good network of branches, this sounds like a child's fantasy - unless they intend to have a bunch of cars driving around UK - hardly the "he fastest, most efficient and environmentally friendly means of getting cards to new customers". I don't think that using existing mail companies for delivering cards is a huge burden on the environment .

What can one expect from a "team of engineers and artists" with a few economists among them?

Norscbu

this is just nonsense to get them some PR

JuicyJesus

Yeah this definitely makes financial sense for a free banking service compared to paying the Royal Mail 1st class bulk rate to deliver the card in a couple of working days like every other bank does, and it makes great sense to have a financial instrument delivered by a flimsy drone via the air. No fraud or security risks with that at all.

But as norscbu says, hey, free PR.

unforeseen

Since you are not allowed to fly a drone within 50m of a structure or vehicle not under the control of the operator then it will never happen

Anthorn

unforeseen wrote: »

Since you are not allowed to fly a drone within 50m of a structure or vehicle not under the control of the operator then it will never happen

Amazon drones?

Starling Bank is not the only new bank offering or about to offer mobile app-only banking. They actually take current trends in banking towards online and mobile banking to their logical conclusion. Difficult to see how they will be able to be app-only though. Perhaps telephone banking will be added which detracts from the intended purpose.

The problem I have is that for example, Starling Bank is said to be targeting Millennials but no-one asked the Millennials! Whether they will offer something more than current offerings from established banks remains to be seen.

Zanderman

Anthorn wrote: »

Amazon drones?

I doubt Amazon are serious, despite all the publicity.

Can you really see delivery vans replaced by swarms of drones going up and down streets with parcels dangling below them? The potential for accidents, collisions, injuries and simple theft would be huge.

How will they knock on doors, how will they leave it with a neighbour, how will they press the buzzer on the entry phone?

And what will their flight time and max distance be? There would have to be a, er, van, parked a few hundred yards away with a bloke in the back feverishly strapping parcels to drones and throwing them out, just in time to catch a returning one ready to be sat back on its charging station for 30 minutes before being ready to go out again.

What, actually, would be the point? There's nothing a delivery drone could do any better than a human - and lots a drone can't do.

Mind you, a drone probably wouldn't just chuck the parcel over the gate...

grumbler

Zanderman wrote: »

...
How will they knock on doors, how will they leave it with a neighbour, how will they press the buzzer on the entry phone?...

"Trial only open to two customers in UK who have huge gardens..."

I guess in the foreseeable future the gardens will still be required, but just won't necessarily be 'huge'.

unforeseen

It would have to be a large garden with a 100m corridor devoid of vehicle's or structures leading to it from open countryside. It would also need to be able to allow the operator to stay within 400m of the drone and keep Mk1 eyeball contact with it.

grumbler

"Government regulations in the UK are generally considered favourable to companies wanting to experiment with autonomous aircraft, but the restrictions still heavily limit what Amazon can test. The company is allowed to test drones that fly beyond line-of-sight in rural and suburban areas; flights where one person operates multiple largely autonomous drones; and sensor performance associated with sense-and-avoid technology."
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/14/amazon-claims-first-successful-prime-air-drone-delivery

veryintrigued

Do the cards have pigs on them?