Blanchardstown, in the west of Dublin, is the base for an Irish drone company, Manna, that mainly delivers takeaway meals. Customers seem to like it. Their food arrives much quicker than other delivery methods. Neighbors, not so much.
The downside? The unbearable noise. u/Willing-Departure115, who lives nearby, describes why the noise is so unbearable.
"The drone has a clear tonal signature around 200 Hz (its blade-pass frequency) with strong harmonics up to 600 Hz. There’s a broadband component in the 2–6 kHz range that our ears are keenly sensitive to – it’s that mid-to-high-frequency hiss that ‘cuts through’ wind noise and distant road traffic. Even as the drone moves 50m away, the 6 dB per-doubling-of-distance drop still leaves enough SPL in the 3–5 kHz band to be distinctly audible."
"The combination of tonal pulses and high-frequency broadband energy makes it sound piercing and penetrating, rather than a more muted noise like an airplane going by."
I guess if delivery drones buzzing everywhere day and night really is to be a future reality, someone is going to have to figure out this noise pollution issue first.
Delivery drones everywhere is a standard part of the sci-fi future; for one part of Dublin, the reality is unbearable noise pollution.
byu/lughnasadh inFuturology
16 Comments
I can’t wait for drone delivery to take off in the US. Whoever gets drone delivery to my doorstep first gets my money!
Lmao, figure out the issue first? At least in my country(US) capital creates “solutions,” riddled with “problems,” and leaves it to the taxpayers and government to fix those problems. Then a number of years go by and the taxpayer/government fix is blamed on “inept government.” Rinse and repeat, capital can do no wrong and government can do no right. We are fairly well brainwashed here.
This would be so damn annoying to me, and I’m sure at some point it will make its way over to my state to my extreme chagrin!
Imagine ordering something online and it shows up 4 hours later.
I’m sold, as for the noise, have you ever lived near an airport or busy road.
Same thing.
Even those pesky police helicopters are loud.
I feel stupid… how is 200-600Hz between 2-6k? “Blue shifted” on approach?
Toroidal props and higher cruise altitude. No reason why noise regs should be a show stopper.
Sounds super-annoying. Let’s hope regulation catches up to move these away from residential areas and noise levels can be reduced, because the technology is quite useful for many applications.
I live in the area and have used the service a few times. It’s honestly not that annoying unless they’re delivering to you or your neighbours. There’s a fuck load of major roads around us and the airport isn’t that far away either so it’s not like we’re in some tranquil little village. I feel this has been blown out of proportion.
Yeah, I feel this as well, I hear drones sometimes in my area and it’s super annoying hearing that painfully loud screeching hum that they make. We need to figure out a way to make them either noiseless or at least a lot quieter.
Seems like their technology is more primitive than other drone delivery companies. Wing, Zipline, and others tackled these issues and continue to improve noise levels.
That’s always been my #1 argument against delivery drones and flying cars. Helicopters are awesome, but they are so good damn loud
I wonder how much it will cost companies to have licences for so many drones.
And how they’ll keep things safe in cities.
Bois pollution is a huge problem. We need to reduce it, not worsen it.
I’m sure my American neighbors will turn these noisy drones into the clay pigeons of the future
These companies need to put some engineering effort into noise abatement, and it’s clear that they aren’t going to do that without regulation.
Are better propeller designs possible? Maybe different sizes of propellers rotating at different speeds to at least vary the frequencies of the noise? If most of the vertical thrust could be produced by a single large rotor, that would output a much lower frequency sound that may be less irritating… but significantly more dangerous if it were to come in contact with a person?
Rain and thunderstorms would drone out the sound if I am not correct.