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A local road in Papua New Guinea. Sure, one could use cargo drones instead of cars to deliver vaccines to remote clinics. Drone deliveries would certainly be cheaper and more environmentally friendly than paving miles and miles of asphalt roads. But here’s the thing ... 1 / 
Drones are not a public good, nor are the air corridors they fly through. A drone delivery service in a developing country will typically be owned by a foreign cargo drone company. While said company may not turn a profit for a while, they’ll get something just as valuable... 2/
Data. Lots and lots of data. Data on the performance of their drones, on failure points and failure rates, etc. Why is this data so valuable? It enables the company to improve their product and log the many flight hours needed to convince the ... 3/
... much stricter aviation authorities back in their home countries (typically the US, Europe or Australia) that their drones are finally ready for prime deliveries in major Western cities, which may well be where the big bucks really are. Don’t get me wrong though ... 4/
At least one foreign drone company is already saving lives (in Africa) by quickly delivering essential medical supplies to remote clinics, especially when the roads to said clinics look like this one in Papua New Guinea. But roads also save many lives. And unlike drones... 5/
Roads are more of a public good than cargo drone delivery routes, right? Perhaps this will change change in coming decades. But for now, virtually anyone can use a road. When governments decide to contract foreign cargo drone companies instead of building new roads, this ... 6/
... may well be far more cost effective, but fewer people will benefit from a drone delivery route than a road, or? Simply because a road is more accessible and has more uses to more people. Building roads also creates/supports local jobs & businesses. Also, what happens to... 7/
... those delivery drivers made redundant by cargo drone deliveries? Do cargo drone companies retrain them? Should cargo drone companies be made to subsidize the building of new roads as part of their corporate social responsibility? Should there be a national drone tax? 8/
I’m all for leap-frogging technologies but more discussion is needed on the ethical issues surrounding cargo drone deliveries specifically. For example, I was asked to lead a scoping mission a while back to evaluate flight routes for cargo drone deliveries. But the ... 9/
... initial routes selected by the government were not compelling. I was shown a road leading down to small river where a bridge had collapsed. Cars could no longer cross and reach a remote clinic further up the mountain. So nearby communities built a makeshift bridge from... 10/
... nearby trees, which allowed for motorbikes to cross, albeit precariously. It made zero sense to use drones just because the small bridge had collapsed. It was still perfectly possible to deliver medicines by motorbike. So I told the government ... 11/
... official that they should pay & help local communities rebuild the bridge with more durable local materials. He said this wouldn’t go down well with the Ministry of Transportation, not to mention with the donor who wanted to fund an innovative project. This made me ... /12
... cringe, and made me question the entire project and point of being there. So I insisted we take an extra day to broaden our fact finding mission. When we found a route that made a bit more sense for cargo drone deliveries, we were told by the government ... 13/
... official that a foreign cargo drone company backed by millions of dollars of VC funding had declined to fly to the remote clinic at that location because it was in a village with no 3G coverage. Their drones would not work properly without 3G. I was shocked. Of course ... 14/
I fully understand the huge value of 3G for done flights, but here was a remote village already disconnected by the lack of 3G — so already screwed by the digital divide — and because of this it was going to get screwed all over again by being disconnected from medical ... 15/
... cargo drone deliveries. We need to design drone solutions for the last mile, which means solutions that work well past the last 3G signal. Perhaps this not be obvious to some foreign cargo drone companies. Long story short ... 16/
...I don’t have all or most of the answers. It’s *super* easy to point out problems. Solutions, not so much. So at least let’s be explicit about the ethical issues. We need to extend UAVcode.org to include guidelines on cargo drones. I’ll wrap this up with one... 17/
... more example. I recently completed scoping for another cargo drone project. The flight route made ok sense from public health perspective. Only later did I learn that the dirt road leading to the remote village where the drone would land was dangerous. Not because of ... 18/
... of the road conditions, or possible flash floods, or landslides, or reckless driving, or the lack of any protective barrier between road and cliff below, but rather because of thugs and regular car jackings. One could say this security issue made the use of drones even... /19
... more compelling, but it made me uneasy. Instead of focusing on cargo drones, perhaps the government should first deal with the security issue? Roads, after all, are a public good. Using cargo drones won’t solve the security problem. I do worry that some ... 20/
... governments, international org’s and donors too easily turn to drones because they’re sexy and grab media headlines. I’m concerned they’ll use drones to leapfrog over their responsibilities: building transportation infrastructure for all and providing safety for all. 21/
I think it is quite difficult and time-consuming to find super compelling examples where expensive cargo drone technologies can be a real game changer and also sustainable. So, sometimes we need more baby steps and time to learn by doing, carefully, honestly and *inclusively* 22/
