Do City Delivery Drones Make Sense? No One Knows, but They’re Flying Over NYC

城市配送无人机真的可行吗？没人知道，但它们已经在纽约上空飞行了

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a six-propeller flying vehicle with a nearly eight-foot wingspan. 那是一只鸟，那是一架飞机，不，那是一架翼展近八英尺的六旋翼飞行器。

For the next year, delivery drones operated by the British company Skyports are taking daily weekday trips across New York City’s East River, between the tip of Manhattan and a pier in Brooklyn. Since early May—a bit behind schedule—the drones have carried light cargo for a New York City health care system. Right now, those loads are basically a few pounds of paper; once the healthcare system is confident the setup works, it should include nonhazardous, non-biological packages, such as light pharmaceuticals. 在接下来的一年里，由英国 Skyports 公司运营的配送无人机将在工作日往返于纽约市东河，穿梭在曼哈顿尖端和布鲁克林的一个码头之间。自五月初以来（比原计划稍晚），这些无人机一直在为纽约市的一个医疗系统运送轻型货物。目前，这些载荷基本上只是几磅重的纸张；一旦医疗系统确认该方案运行稳定，运送内容将包括非危险、非生物类的包裹，例如轻型药品。

The drones are part of an experiment run by two New York-New Jersey agencies to discover how a relatively new and sometimes controversial sky-bound delivery tech might fit into a hectic urban environment—and the airspace above it. The pilot program will also try to answer a question that hangs over the entire drone delivery industry: Where does it make sense? 这些无人机是纽约和新泽西两地机构联合开展的一项实验的一部分，旨在探索这种相对较新且颇具争议的空中配送技术如何融入繁忙的城市环境及其上方的空域。该试点项目还将试图回答困扰整个无人机配送行业的一个问题：它到底在哪些场景下才真正适用？

“Will there be enough regular flights (1 to 2 per hour) that the client health care system finds true value?” Stephan Pezdek, the regional freight planning manager at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is operating the pilot, wrote in an email to WIRED. (The Port Authority declined to name the health care system for contractual reasons.) “Will deliveries make it to their destination faster and within the financial constraints of the current carriers they are using? Will the community appreciate the work and not feel like it is a disruption? All of this will inform our understanding of how the first corridor shapes up.” “是否会有足够频繁的定期航班（每小时 1 到 2 次），让客户医疗系统感受到真正的价值？”负责运营该试点项目的纽约与新泽西港务局区域货运规划经理 Stephan Pezdek 在给《连线》（WIRED）杂志的电子邮件中写道。（出于合同原因，港务局拒绝透露该医疗系统的名称。）“配送是否能比他们目前使用的承运商更快地到达目的地，且符合财务成本限制？社区是否会认可这项工作，而不觉得它是一种干扰？所有这些都将加深我们对首条航线如何构建的理解。”

The Port Authority, which is also working with the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCDEC) on this drone project, will also measure how the deliveries affect patient care, Pezdek says. Pezdek 表示，港务局正在与纽约市经济发展公司（NYCDEC）合作开展此项无人机项目，并将评估这些配送服务对患者护理的影响。

Globally, drone delivery is still in an experimental phase. What projects do exist mostly focus on carrying cargo to rural or suburban areas, where gaps in road networks and services, plus emptier skies, could make the tech a better fit. Skyports has been delivering mail in remote areas of Scotland since 2023, and carrying cargo to offshore wind turbines in Germany. The US company Zipline says it makes deliveries to and from some 5,000 health facilities across four continents; its oldest program delivers vaccines and blood products in Rwanda. In the US, companies including Alphabet’s Wing and Amazon’s Prime Air are working to expand delivery services across the South, with a focus on the suburban areas surrounding Houston, Austin, and Dallas, Texas. 在全球范围内，无人机配送仍处于实验阶段。现有的项目大多集中在向农村或郊区运送货物，那里道路网络和服务存在缺口，加上空域相对空旷，使得该技术更具适用性。自 2023 年以来，Skyports 一直在苏格兰偏远地区运送邮件，并为德国的海上风力涡轮机运送货物。美国公司 Zipline 表示，其业务覆盖四大洲约 5,000 家医疗机构；其历史最悠久的项目是在卢旺达运送疫苗和血液制品。在美国，包括 Alphabet 旗下的 Wing 和亚马逊的 Prime Air 在内的公司正致力于将配送服务扩展到南部地区，重点关注德克萨斯州休斯顿、奥斯汀和达拉斯周边的郊区。

For drones, dense cities present different challenges. First, there’s the safety question. New York City’s airspace is packed, hosting three international airports. In Manhattan alone, there are three publicly owned heliports. In May 2023, nearly 9,000 helicopter flights took place over city land or water, according to data compiled by the New York City Council. This drone pilot program’s start date was pushed back in part because another experimental aviation tech, an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle, was demo-ing its own first-of-its-kind flights out of the same heliport. 对于无人机而言，人口稠密的城市带来了不同的挑战。首先是安全问题。纽约市的空域非常拥挤，拥有三个国际机场。仅在曼哈顿，就有三个公用直升机场。根据纽约市议会汇编的数据，2023 年 5 月，在城市陆地或水域上空进行了近 9,000 次直升机飞行。该无人机试点项目的启动日期被推迟，部分原因是另一种实验性航空技术——电动垂直起降（eVTOL）飞行器——正在同一个直升机场进行其首创性的飞行演示。

That citified hustle and bustle leads to extra precautions. The pilot project was, as standard, approved by the US Federal Aviation Administration, which requires a certified drone pilot to supervise every flight. Each flight will take place over a fixed route away from residential buildings. The project must obtain a weekly NYPD permit to operate, and delays in acquiring the first one also led the city to push back its start date, says Amanda Kwan, a spokesperson for the Port Authority. The agency also spoke with three local community boards before it allowed the drones to take off. 这种城市的繁忙喧嚣导致了额外的预防措施。该试点项目按标准获得了美国联邦航空管理局（FAA）的批准，要求必须有持证无人机驾驶员监督每次飞行。每次飞行都将在远离居民楼的固定航线上进行。港务局发言人 Amanda Kwan 表示，该项目必须每周获得纽约警察局（NYPD）的运营许可，而首次许可获取的延迟也导致该市推迟了启动日期。在允许无人机起飞之前，该机构还与三个当地社区委员会进行了沟通。

Then there’s the noise issue. Skyports’ drones, made by an undisclosed manufacturer, are about as loud as a lawnmower (between 60 and 100 decibels). Other delivery drones hover around the 50 to 70 decibel mark, about as loud as a vacuum or traffic—a sound that should be familiar to New Yorkers. The noise might prove innocuous to city-dwellers. Or it might not. In Texas, residents complained to WIRED last year that the “buzzing” of Amazon drones in the area sounded like a constantly running leaf blower, and disturbed pet dogs and local wildlife. New York’s 311 service has a special web landing page for complaints related to the cargo drone pilot program. 接下来是噪音问题。Skyports 的无人机由一家未公开的制造商生产，其噪音大约相当于割草机（在 60 到 100 分贝之间）。其他配送无人机的噪音则在 50 到 70 分贝左右，大约相当于吸尘器或交通噪音——这对纽约人来说应该很熟悉。这种噪音对城市居民来说可能是无害的，也可能不是。去年，德克萨斯州的居民向《连线》抱怨称，亚马逊无人机在该地区的“嗡嗡声”听起来就像一台不停运转的吹叶机，干扰了宠物狗和当地野生动物。纽约的 311 服务热线为此专门设立了一个网页，用于处理与该货运无人机试点项目相关的投诉。

Medical drone projects have so far “proven to be beneficial,” says Damon Lercel, an assistant professor specializing in manned and unmanned aviation at Purdue University. The drones could be especially helpful in a city like New York, where “typical ground transportation has its challenges, especially when there’s an accident or gridlock.” Saving time by eventually flying critical medical supplies through the sky “could possibly save lives,” he says. 普渡大学专门研究有人和无人驾驶航空的助理教授 Damon Lercel 表示，医疗无人机项目迄今为止“已被证明是有益的”。无人机在纽约这样的城市可能特别有用，因为“传统的地面交通面临挑战，尤其是在发生事故或交通拥堵时。”他说，通过空中飞行运送关键医疗物资来节省时间，“可能会挽救生命”。

Whatever the outcome of this year’s New York City experiment, more drone projects are likely on the way. Rules currently being finalized by the FAA could reduce the time it takes to receive a permit to operate professional drone services beyond pilots’ visual sight lines. For now, though, the Port Authority wants to make one thing clear: Just because these test drones are flying in the city does not mean hobbyist residents can operate their own. 无论今年纽约市的实验结果如何，更多的无人机项目很可能会接踵而至。美国联邦航空管理局目前正在敲定的规则，可能会缩短获得超视距专业无人机服务运营许可所需的时间。不过，目前港务局想明确一点：仅仅因为这些测试无人机在城市中飞行，并不意味着普通居民可以随意操作自己的无人机。

“Do not do this at home,” Kwan says. “请勿在家中模仿，”Kwan 说道。