In 1860, the Pony Express disseminated information about the results of the presidential election. California newspapers found out who became president of the United States 7 days and 17 hours after the East Coast newspapers — it was definitely setting a new speed record. Letters and parcels were delivered in this way, and often at a much slower rate, until 1861 something more capacious, more convenient, and safer arrived — a railway that delivered parcels not in a few weeks, but in a few days.
However, the revolution was just coming. At the end of the 19th century, it was decided that parcels would be delivered not to the post office, but directly to people. And in 1913, parcels appeared - from then on you could send much larger things. In addition, they were so cheap that students until the 1960s sent their clothes to their family homes for washing, because it paid them more than visiting the laundry. There was even a case of sending a child in a package. In 1919, a certain 19-year-old, James Casey, developed a local courier company, going out from Seattle to the rest of the country and went with the development of the automobile and flew with the development of aviation. He called it United Parcel Service. More commonly known as UPS.
Mars rover for shopping
Today, any information or product is at our fingertips. Imagine a lazy Saturday morning. “Good morning,” an empty refrigerator tells us. Staying in our pajamas, we go out to the store, or rather, we enter the e-store and, thanks to the application, we order home purchases that the robot will deliver to us. Starship - the machine of the creators of Skype can deliver us a maximum of two bags with purchases, within the time limit set by us. Our six-wheeled supplier does not like the hustle and bustle of the big city - and even in it, because it can get quite lost in the crowd. But it is great to find itself in quieter neighborhoods, which - like a Martian rover - scans with its alert, sensitive camera, recognizing the shapes of people, animals and even the colors of the lights in the passage. He does not make his own decisions - the whole route is predetermined. So far, a prototype is rolling on the sidewalks, but its creators plan to start full-scale activities.
It fell from the sky!
For further distances, Amazon is preparing for this with its drone. Here, too, man is superfluous, because Amazon Prime Air the shipment with a maximum weight of 2 kg according to the plan is to be delivered to our garden in less than 30 minutes. In addition, he will not be surprised by any tree or any other object lying or standing - the drone does not fly blindly, because it is equipped with technology that allows it to “sense” and avoid obstacles. Currently, this solution is still being tested.
Where is Google going?
Google went even further. Remember how in “Star Wars” hundreds of small fighters flew out of the great imperial ship with the frightening name Star Destroyer? Google Project Wing is supposed to work in a similar way. A large “ship” appears over the city, hangs in the air over the surrounding area, after which it launches a small drone with our shipment. This one, after landing, extends the wheels, on which it delivers the package directly to our hands. This project, of course, is still developing and unfortunately it is not known exactly when the shipment delivered by air will be expected.
Online shopping without delivery
What if we want to receive a product that is not quite on offer? We can print it on a 3D printer. Amazon — which is emerging as a pioneer of innovative solutions in E-commerce — has already launched a separate section “3D Print” some time ago, where we can design our model of a given product and wait for the shipment to be printed on the delivery vehicle. However, this is only the beginning, because the American giant intends to introduce into the offer files that we will download and print ourselves at home or in special points as finished products in instant version.
Where are the parcel suppliers going? Probably somewhere beyond the limit of imagination, so it promises to be a nice sci-fi movie, in which each of us will soon be able to play the main role.
