Amazon.com recently announced Prime Air: they are going to deliver packages via drone. San Francisco innovators Skycatch announced TacoCopter, drone-based taco deliveries. They just raised $13.2 million.
Francesco’s Pizzeria in Mumbai, India – a city of 12 million people on the Ancient Silk Route – has upped the stakes in the global robot fast food market, using a drone to deliver a pizza a mile away from their store. They see the $2000 drones as a way to beat Exodus Mumbai’s notorious traffic.
Inspired by Amazon’s plans to deliver goods by unmanned drones, a pizzeria in Mumbai, India shows this video that their flying pizza delivery drone delivers
They’ve always come topped with pepperoni, chicken tikka or vegetarian; but the flying variety is new.
Staff at Francesco’s Pizzeria in south Mumbai were inspired by the news that online retail giant Amazon was planning to use unmanned drones to deliver goods, and decided to try one out as a means to beat the city’s notorious traffic.
“We successfully carried out a test delivery by sending a pizza to a customer located 1.5 kilometre away from our outlet on May 11,” Francesco’s Pizzeria chief executive Mikhel Rajani told the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency.
“What we have done now will be common place in the next four to five years,” he said, adding that the customized four-rotor drones each cost around $2,000.
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Perhaps it’s called “chicken tikka” after the noise the rotors make.
The pizza company got questioned by the local authorities about the flight. It seems they hadn’t figured out all the palms they need to grease. If you’ve read Shantaram you have an idea of how Mumbai works.
The usage of unmanned drone for the first time in India by a city-based pizza shop for delivery here has come under scanner of Mumbai police, which will seek an explanation from the outlet as to why it did not inform them before carrying out the experiment.
Police will also ask Air Traffic Controller whether Francesco’s Pizzeria outlet had a correspondence with them.
When contacted, an ATC official said he did not know whether the outlet had sought permission from them.
The official, however, categorically stated, “As per norms, permission must be taken for flying any such object.”
“We are very sensitive towards anything that flies in the sky with the help of remote control. We will certainly ask the outlet’s administration as to why it did not inform us before carrying out this experiment. We also seek full details pertaining to the drone test,” Madhukar Pandey, Additional Police Commissioner (Central Region) in whose jurisdiction the drone was flown, told PTI.
“We will also ask the ATC if it was consulted by the outlet. After studying all the aspects, we will decide the future course of action,” Pandey said.
According to sources, terror threat has been lingering over the city and inputs available with police suggest that terror organisations might strike using paragliding and unmanned drones.
One benefit of drone delivery? Like Über, you don’t need to tip.
These pizza guys should team up with Burning Man aerial catering specialist Steven Gluckstern.
Used to be, if you wanted food from the sky, you had to shoot a bird. Now there’s an app for that…maybe they should call it “Hungry Birds”
Israel’s Midburn needs help getting art out to the desert. I guess the Israelis couldn’t figure out how to make enough money from a sold out event, to actually get the art to it! Tickets cost 490 shekels, which is US$140. They sold 2000 of them, which is US$280,000.
In addition to this, they’ve raised $75,000 from the Israeli community. They still need another $18,000 – or $9 from each person attending. So far they have raised $211 of the $18,000 they’re looking for. What happens if they don’t get more? Will this first-time event be art-free? For some reason their Indiegogo runs for a month after the event, which happens in 9 days.
Caveat emptor, Burners…remember this is the Middle Eastern bazaar.
We hear Maid Marian is attending, let’s hope she (and her multi-million dollar non-profit Burner culture spreading .ORG) are donating too. $18k doesn’t seem like much to spread Burner culture to a giant segment of the globe, with the first ever Middle Eastern burn.
From Mid-Burner Rachel:
What can I say – you have a sweet blog, and write about Burning Man …which is why I’m reaching out to you. As part of Israel’s first Burning Man Festival- Midburn- My fellow Burners and I working hard to raise money to support artists contributing to the Midburn Art Project.
We already have over 30 artists and art projects underway for our festival this June, but we need to raise a bit more money to ensure that all this artwork makes it to the festival and beyond!
It would mean the world to us if you could write a short blog post about our Indiegogo Campaign- or about our event in general. Of course, we’d love you to donate too :), but we really need your help in spreading the world.
I cannot express how grateful I am to you for reading these words. Hopefully, we’ll be able to thank you in person at the next burning man festival.
Burn On!
[Update: 5/25/14] Rachel has contacted us to ask us to change this post. I’m not sure which part she has a problem with – it seems accurate enough. Her explanation sheds further light on the funding compromises the organizers were forced to make, without support from BMOrg. She answers our question: yes, they’re not going to bring much of the art to the event unless they raise these extra funds – even though it is located close by. Apparently the reason the Israeli’s can’t pay the artists from their sold-out event is they underestimated what things cost in Israel. The fences have to be higher and the generators have to be bigger. Emphasis ours.
Please allow me to explain the campaign, it’s timing and expenses, so that you might consider changing what you wrote in your post, since we’ve seen it take a very negative toll already.
1) Campaign timing
As this is our first ever burning man, we had to make estimations about how much money we would need to cover the event at the beginning. Unfortunately, we ran into budget issues late in the game, and our artists are sadly the ones who we see need money the most. If we don’t get money to cover expenses, some art will not be able to make it to midburn (despite its proximity) and many artists will be in large debt. It will also take a toll on our desire to support the project in the future. So yes, the timing is unfortunate, but it was necessary.
2) Expenses: Israel is extremely expensive – at least 2x more expensive than the States. As we’re off in the middle east, surrounded by countries we have poor trade with, all supplies that might be considered to be cheap in the states are quite expensive here. This means that the money that we do have, doesn’t go nearly as far as you might think.
3) Security requirements:
Israel has unbelievably strict security requirements.
For Example: Only very specific and expensive generators can be used according to law. Gas requirements also leave us with far more expensive equipment than is required in the US. Lighting is extremely strict and requires way more lighting than would ever be required in the states. Fencing is also extremely strict- we have to invest in building a massive fencing encasing in order to get approval from the law.
For all of these reasons and more we are running the campaign despite the timing, and despite the money we’ve already succeeded in bringing in.
Perhaps Midburn would’ve been better to rent the fencing and lighting and generators for their first time event, rather than taking the cash windfall from the sold out show and “investing” in this gear. That way, they could still pay the artists, make profit for themselves, and charge even more for tickets next year. It seems like a mere $10 price rise on the tickets would have made the event profitable, not bad for a first effort. Coachella didn’t make money for years.
According to Haaretz, the promoters weren’t expecting the event to be so popular – it is now the third largest Burning Man event in the world:
We did not expect such a massive response, especially as we chose not to publicize the event,” admits Nir Eden, one of the organizers, who works as a logistics manager for a fashion chain. “There are about 300 people working nonstop on the Midburn festival. You have to understand, it involves building a temporary city.”…Midburn organizers claim theirs has quickly become the third-largest Burning Man-type festival in the world, behind the original in the U.S. (70,000 participants) and one in Africa (8,000 participants). 15 trucks and two shipping containers full of equipment will be brought down to the desert, along with installations and artworks created by 40 different groups. Midburn has a foundation supporting its artwork, which has granted 150,000 shekels to the artists. Eden, a perennial guest at Burning Man, says he has gladly spent tens of thousands of his own shekels on the festival. Representatives from the World Burning Man have recently arrived in Israel to declare the country one of the seven official areas where the festival is held.
Rachel confirmed that Midburn does have to pay a licensing fee to Decommodification LLC. This conflicts with the recent opinion of nay-sayers here. It also conflicts with Midburn founder (and BMOrg official contact) Rei Dishon, who says in the comment shared by Nomad below that they are not paying BMOrg any fees.
I know none of these people and am not attending the event, I have no dog in this fight and no axe to grind. I couldn’t tell you if both were authorized founders, or neither was, all I know is we now have two different people involved with two different stories. Let’s hope the truth gets out, we welcome everyone who has knowledge of the situation to come forward and tell us what is really going on behind the scenes. In my time I have met a fairly wide variety of party promoters around the globe, some successful, some only sporadically so. I’ve done business in the Middle East before, and have run into all kinds of “bazaar” situations in that part of the world. It’s no surprise to encounter two people who claim to be insiders and founders, but have completely different views about what is going on. Somewhere in this souk, agreements get made, things get worked out so everybody can move forwards, usually with everyone grumbling about something but getting enough to make it worthwhile. I have never been to Israel, but Burning Man’s Social Alchemist Bear Kittay told me “you’d love it. It’s just like Burning Man. People stop their cars in the middle of the street and get out and dance”. Burners will need to make up their own minds about what is actually going on in Israel with Burning Man’s first ever official (or is it?) Middle Eastern regional.
Rachel’s claims that they messed up the budget because “we didn’t know things in Israel cost twice as much as the US” and “there are all these stricter regulations in Israel”, are called into question by reports that Midburn have been throwing Burning Man Regional events since 2012 – complete with art cars, a Man and Temple to burn, MOOP, Center Camp, costumes, gifting. The only difference here appears to be licensing the Burning Man name. Official affiliation doesn’t seem to have brought Midburn much, especially since they did not even have to publicize the event to sell all the tickets in advance.
Hopefully the Burning Man Project will step up and supply what’s needed to reimburse the artists and get the art to Midburn. It’s a chance for them to do something meaningful with that money – what better cause than the first Middle Eastern Burn, in the year that we have a Middle Easterntheme? It’s also a chance for BMOrg to demonstrate to the international Burner community that their charity cares more about Art than it does about The Founders Speaking. The $18,000 would be less than 0.1% of the Burning Man gate take (it’s 47 tickets), and about 4% of BMOrg’s annual travel budget. They’re a non-profit, they want to spread Burner culture around the world, and they’re going to get royalties back from this one which is the second biggest…so what’s the problem? Why wouldn’t BMOrg want to support the Midburn artists? Or invest in the fencing, lighting, and generator infrastructure that burns in the region require, so that the promoters can pay the artists instead of having to keep all this sophisticated equipment, which would only be used once a year.
If Burners donate to the Burning Man Project, is the money going to flow through to the artists, to get their art to Midburn? Or will it go to BMOrg personnel for first class international travel to the rave?
Burners who want to help out in the Middle East may also consider spending their dollars healing the damage done by fences, instead of putting up new ones.
Goli Mohammadi has a story about El Pulpo Mechanico over at online maker movement zine Make:. It was just in San Francisco at the World Maker Faire, did you see it?
It’s interesting to see El Pulpo in broad daylight!
One of the most popular and spectacular Burning Man art cars ever, it’s great to get to know more about the artist behind it.
El Pulpo is a 25-foot-tall mechanical octopus made from found objects and scrap iron that spews fire from its mechanical tentacles while the eight eyes pop in and out of its head. The brainchild of Eureka, Calif.-based artist Duane Flatmo, with electrical panels and flame effects by Jerry Kunkel, El Pulpo is a sight to behold in person. We chatted with Duane to find out more.
Duane Flatmo (left) toasting Jerry Kunkel (right) on a job well done.
1. What inspired you to build El Pulpo Mecanico and how long did it take? I’ve designed a similar version of this mechanical sculpture a few times over the years and realized that it could be a really cool sculpture if it were much larger. Having gone to Burning man for 6 years prior, I knew that I wanted to build it for that upcoming year: 2011! Every year we head down to our house in Mexico for two months and work on our own artistic projects — and this was mine. I would design a small, working model to use as a guide for the big one when we got back. I collected junk all over the roads near our house and built the model from that. When it was done, I disassembled it and brought it home to our lab. The Spanish name El Pulpo Mecanico means mechanical octopus.
2. What are some of the materials used in the build? I have a great working relationship with Bonnie at our local scrapyard, Arcata Scrap and Salvage. I started by realizing that the scale was going to be determined by a 55-gallon rusty drum as the tentacle size. The scale was derived from that. Most of the parts are made from rusty junk metal with embellishments of silver steel and aluminum.
3. Was this a solitary build or did you have a team working with you? I have been working for 32 years designing and building kinetic sculptures for the annual Kinetic Sculpture Race here in Humboldt County. My partner Jerry Kunkel was the co-builder and handled all the electrical panels and flame effects. Jerry is an amazing diverse tinkerer. He can build anything. Working together on this project was a definite high point in our building repertoire. Then our good friend Niel Wangsgard along with Lucas Thornton put in many hours to help with the overall project.
4. How did you get into building large-scale art? I guess all the years doing the Kinetic Sculpture Race prepared me for this. I have done some large-scale projects in the mural business. Three-dimensional art is much different and more challenging.
5. Have you been building all your life? How did you get started and what other types of things do you make? I’m a graphic artist and mural painter mostly. That pays the bills. But I’ve had a build and tinker mentality since I was a kid. We lived near Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm when I grew up, and I was always fascinated by these places. I would come home and want to build stuff.
In 2001 I was on a team called “Art Attack” and we were one of the first eight teams sent to London for the American series “Junkyard Wars.” We ended up taking 2nd place and spent a month in London filming three episodes. Ken Beidleman and June Moxon were on the team. That was a blast. Then two years later we were asked to race huge monster trucks in China at the Strange Vehicle Games. We spent 17 days in China and competed with 15 other teams from around the world. We each received $2,000 and had to build a vehicle to compete. They would send it to China and we had to leave it there after the games were over. That was another event that inspired me to build larger stuff.
6. Where have you displayed El Pulpo in the past? We’ve been to Burning Man three times and this year will be our fourth. Next year we plan on constructing something new. That should be a fun task. We’ve been to The Electric Daisy Carnival in San Bernardino and Las Vegas, and got to shoot big fire at the “On the Move” project for the SF Exploratorium.
Photo by Trey Ratcliff
7. How many gallons of propane do you go through on a show night? El Pulpo mecanico holds a total of 200 gallons of propane. That lasts about four hours if we don’t hit the fire buttons too much. That’s 200 gallons a night at Burning Man, which can really add up.
8. What is one of your favorite El Pulpo stories? Well, having Susan Sarandon join us on El Pulpo at Burning Man last year was pretty cool. But watching the firemen from San Francisco line up to watch the fire show, with the head fire inspector hitting the fire buttons and giggling like a child. The connection with the sculpture becomes so pronounced when you have all the fire power at your finger tips. It’s actually 1/2 fire and 1/2 percussion. You can play this thing like an instrument.
Photo by Cat Laine
9. What makes you most excited about sharing El Pulpo with the Maker Faire community? It will be nice to show people El Pulpo Mecanico up close. We love to see the gears turning in peoples minds as they look at the simplicity of the cams that run the beast. Many people think it’s all hydraulics until they look inside. Fun stuff!
Inspired by Amazon’s plans to deliver goods by unmanned drones, a pizzeria in Mumbai, India shows this video that their flying pizza delivery drone delivers
Staff at Francesco’s Pizzeria in south Mumbai were inspired by the news that online retail giant Amazon was planning to use unmanned drones to deliver goods, and decided to try one out as a means to beat the city’s notorious traffic.
“We are very sensitive towards anything that flies in the sky with the help of remote control. We will certainly ask the outlet’s administration as to why it did not inform us before carrying out this experiment. We also seek full details pertaining to the drone test,” Madhukar Pandey, Additional Police Commissioner (Central Region) in whose jurisdiction the drone was flown, told PTI.
“We are very sensitive towards anything that flies in the sky with the help of remote control. We will certainly ask the outlet’s administration as to why it did not inform us before carrying out this experiment. We also seek full details pertaining to the drone test,” Madhukar Pandey, Additional Police Commissioner (Central Region) in whose jurisdiction the drone was flown, told PTI.
