Is this a pipedream?

An audacious new project unfolding beneath Austin

One of the coolest things about living in Abu Dhabi is how fast everything arrives.

I tap my phone and our groceries show up in less than an hour, the milk still cold and berries still sweating.

Instant delivery is the most pro-family technology I know.

Our Saturday mornings used to be spent pushing a cart up and down crowded aisles. I’d play “I spy” with my kids to kill time while waiting in line. Now I watch people lugging grocery bags and think, “You’re doing it wrong.” 

Fast, cheap delivery is possible in Abu Dhabi because of cheap labor. That’s an advantage America lacks. It’s why a DoorDash burrito costs 10 bucks to cross town. Hiring a human to deliver your 1-pound lunch in a 3,000-pound car is ridiculously inefficient.

The solution? Robots and automation. Wait until you see what these audacious innovators are working on now.

Imagine waking up, tapping a “cappuccino” button, and walking downstairs.

You slide open a drawer in your lobby. Steam hits your face as you open the lid. A few minutes earlier, that coffee was prepared by a barista across the neighborhood.

Impossible? Only for now. One entrepreneur is building an underground “ATM system” that can deliver almost everything… almost instantly.

You know how a cash machine works. You insert your card, press a few buttons, and cash whirrs out. Now imagine you could do the same for your groceries or prescriptions.

Austin, TX, startup Pipedream Labs is building a network of underground tunnels for its “Otter” robots to zip through at 100 mph, delivering almost anything, anywhere.

Pipedream is turning this into a reality with thick tubes made of the same materials cities use for water mains.

Inside those tubes runs a fleet of autonomous electric couriers, aka Otters. They ride on rails, carrying bags that fit 99% of everyday items. The robots are self-driving delivery carts that never see daylight.

The goods come up through portals, which are like vending machines for everything.

Pipedream’s first pilot project in Austin will span 40 miles and over 100 portals. The whole network is linked so items can move from anywhere to anywhere in under 15 minutes and for less than 25 cents per trip.

How do you dig miles of tunnels without jackhammering the whole city? Pipedream’s approach is more like sewing, not digging.

Crews pop open two small manholes a block apart. From one hole, a steerable drill threads a skinny pilot line. Then they widen the hole and pull the pipe back through. The first Austin testbed was live within a week.

Faster delivery might not sound revolutionary, but it changes everything.

Imagine if Amazon next-day delivery ended right now.

How many businesses would vanish overnight? How many rural towns, dependent on delivery because the closest Wal-Mart is an hour away, would whither?

Now flip that: How many new opportunities will be created when “next day” delivery becomes “next ten minutes?”

Abu Dhabi taught me instant delivery changes how you shop. Instead of doing one big weekly shop and having to eat wilted lettuce by Friday, we order fresh almost every day.

Want to make your favorite dinner but don’t have the ingredients? No problem. They’ll be here in 15 minutes.

Also… the current delivery paradigm has clogged our roads with vans. Did you know Amazon alone delivered 6 billion parcels in America last year? Imagine burying even 10% of that flow underground.

If Pipedream can execute, my kids will grow up wondering why anyone ever waited two days for a package. Imagine if instead of a mail slot in the front door, every house had a hatch in the wall where anything you need appears in 15 minutes.

Yes, this is an audacious vision. The company is named “Pipedream” after all. I love the audacity of asking:

We have subways for people. Why not for stuff?

Elon Musk’s Boring Company was born from similar audacity.

The origin story is classic Elon. Stuck in brutal LA traffic, he tweeted, “Traffic is driving me nuts. I’m going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging.” Then he actually did it.

The Boring Company’s secret weapon is Prufrock, a huge, autonomous tunnel-boring robot. It launches from the surface, chews through rock nonstop, and resurfaces at the far end.

The vision is already taking shape beneath Las Vegas, where its 29-mile, all-electric tunnel network is live. Soon, robotaxis will ferry people through it.

I’ll be meeting with The Boring Company in Austin in 2 weeks, along with the original rational optimist, Matt Ridley, and ROS co-founder Dan Steinhart. We’ll be kicking off a six-city tour to meet some of America’s boldest builders in person.

I’m also pumped to meet America’s No. 1 drone delivery innovator.

Zipline.

The story of Zipline is the story of “The Blight.” Zipline is an American company, but when it launched in 2016, regulators wouldn’t let it operate in America. The FAA's “beyond visual line of sight” rule required operators to physically see their drones at all times.

Undeterred, Zipline went to Rwanda to prove itself, delivering blood and medical supplies to remote hospitals. Regulators won’t let us do business at home. No problem. We’ll do it in the African bush!

Zipline’s drone network now ships 70% of Rwanda's national blood supply and has saved countless lives.

Now Zipline is bringing its battle-tested tech back to America. After inking a deal with Walmart earlier this year, it announced a new partnership with Chipotle to deliver hot burritos through the air in Dallas.

Zipline’s main drone hovers 300 feet in the air while lowering a microwave-sized "Zip," an autonomous droid that guides itself to your doorstep with dinner plate accuracy. Once it drops off your taco, the tether spools back up, and the Zip disappears inside the main drone.

Zipline’s drones are fully autonomous. That’s how they’ve already flown more than 100 million miles safely.

Earlier this year in Dublin I ordered a burrito from Manna’s drone service. Actually, I ordered two – the first arrived so fast I missed recording it. The second one landed just as quickly, and yes, I ate both.

Manna is great, but behind the magic was a team of human operators piloting the drone by hand. This is like having a safety driver in every robotaxi. Not scalable.

Zipline’s automated drones can solve this… if regulators will allow it.

As cool as it is having a flying robot drop lunch on your doorstep, it’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to automated delivery drones. Some applications I’m most excited about:

• Sherpas. On Mount Everest human sherpas used to spend four exhausting, dangerous hours hauling 45-pound loads down sheets of ice. This season two drones did the same trip in six minutes flat.

• Firefighters. China is testing high-rise firefighting drones that can reach the 30th floor, blasting water at burning windows in seconds.

• Medics. In Sweden autonomous drones are rushing defibrillators to heart attack victims faster than ambulances could ever weave through traffic. Minutes saved = lives saved.

The civilian side of drones is only part of the story. Drone warfare continues to reshape the battlefield and encourages drone makers to continually try to “leapfrog” their enemy’s capabilities.

Innovators are rewiring the world beneath our feet and above our heads.

Delivery pipes are being installed under city streets like veins. Robotaxis glide safely through traffic. Fleets of flying robots are turning the sky into a delivery network.

My friend, economist Tyler Cowen, says the No. 1 problem in society today is pessimism. I agree.

My theory is for the past few decades most innovation happened on screens.

I love computers, the web and software as much as the next guy. But digital innovation can only be so impactful on our daily lives.

Physical innovation is different. Ultra-fast, cheap delivery can flip the national mood because it’s progress you can touch.

Apps are abstract. Tunnels, drones, and driverless cars are real. Once an autonomous machine carries you flawlessly across town, you stop debating whether the bright future is real.

It starts with you. Don’t just read about innovation, get your hands dirty.

If robotaxis operate in your city, hail one this weekend.

If you’re a parent, see if drone delivery is available near you. Experience it with your kids. Drones will spawn many billion-dollar businesses. Expose your kids early.

The innovation avalanche has arrived. Go see it for yourself!

—Stephen McBride